After a detailed BANAE report, Rahul Gandhi demanded the restoration of scholarships from the Social Justice Minister.
New Delhi. Major decisions are often recorded in very short lines in government files. The story of the end of the Commercial Pilot License (CPL) scholarship for Scheduled Caste (SC) students is also contained in one such line in documents obtained by TM. The minutes of a meeting of the Steering Committee of the Top Class Scholarship Scheme, held on July 7, 2023, state that there was a “broad consensus” that the CPL course should be removed from the scheme due to the very high fees and lack of employment certainty for the beneficiary students.
This policy decision concerning the Scheduled Caste community was made without consulting the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, which not only violates constitutional provisions but has also deprived 200 deserving Dalit students, who perhaps dreamed of becoming pilots, of their dream careers over the past four years.
More than three years after that Steering Committee meeting, this decision is now at the center of political debate. On September 26th, Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, wrote a letter to Dr. Virendra Kumar, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. He demanded that the CPL scholarship be immediately reinstated and all pending cases from 2023 be approved.
This letter was not written suddenly; it was represented by a Mumbai-based organization. On September 11th, the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar National Association of Engineers (BANAE), based in Andheri (Mumbai), sent a detailed letter to Rahul Gandhi. The organization’s national president, Nagsen Sonare, requested Rahul Gandhi to personally raise the issue with the Minister of Social Justice, citing it as “most urgent/on top priority.” BANAE clearly stated that this was not merely a scholarship complaint, but rather a question of adherence to constitutional safeguards in major policy decisions affecting Scheduled Castes. Fifteen days later, Rahul Gandhi wrote his letter to the Minister, enclosing BANAE’s full representation.
In his letter, Gandhi wrote, “Young Dalits across the country dream of looking up to the sky and flying. For years, government scholarships made these dreams come true. These dreams have been shattered since 2023-24. In 2023-24, the CPL course was removed from the “Top Class Scholarship Scheme” for SC students. The Ministry states that eligible students can apply under the Post-Matric Scholarship for SC Students.” Rahul Gandhi says that the scheme’s guidelines do not include any provision for CPL training, and therefore “the path to the cockpit has been closed for most Dalit youth.”
The issue arose after a complaint by a Bahujan activist from Uttar Pradesh. Dwarika Prasad, a retired general manager of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), is the complainant in this entire episode, whose letter brought the matter to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC). Through three years of tireless efforts, Dwarika Prasad collected documents through the Right to Information Act and uncovered the reasons behind the closure of this ambitious scheme.
Dwarika Prasad, a resident of Mathura district, wrote a letter to the NCSC Chairman, stating that the free scholarship and fee for CPL courses for SC students had been in place for over four decades, but the Ministry of Social Justice had arbitrarily discontinued it. Dwarika Prasad explains that hundreds of poor Scheduled Caste students had benefited from this scheme. They alleged that this decision was taken in violation of Article 338(9) because it appeared that the Ministry had not consulted the Commission before making this major policy decision. They requested the Commission to take up the matter with the Ministry.
On January 19, 2026, the Commission’s Under Secretary, K.J. Bhatt, sent a letter to the Secretary, Department of Social Justice, under file number ESDW/IP/UP/2024/259953, based on this complaint. Dwarika Prasad’s representation was attached to it for “appropriate action,” and a copy of the letter was also provided to him. This same Commission letter was later referenced in both BANAE’s representation and Rahul Gandhi’s letter. More than seven months after the Commission’s letter, no effective solution has been found.
When CPL was part of the Post-Matric Scholarship
To understand what changed, we need to look back. The Centrally Sponsored Post Matric Scholarship Scheme (PMS-2010), which came into effect on July 1, 2010, clearly states CPL as a Group I course, the same category as medical, engineering, and management courses. The CPL course also included training for a commercial helicopter pilot license and multi-engine rating on aircraft like the A-320. Fifty CPL awards were set aside for the entire country each year. State governments and union territories would scrutinize applications and submit the names of eligible candidates to the ministry, which would approve up to 50 awards nationwide on a first-come, first-served basis. Selected students received a maintenance allowance at Group I rates: ₹1,200 per month for hostel residents and ₹550 per month for day scholars. Flight charges were also covered, in addition to all mandatory fees. The same document also stipulated that scholarships would not be awarded for private pilot license and aircraft maintenance engineer courses. Thus, CPL was not an exception, but rather included in the scholarship-eligible courses.
Speaking to The Mooknayak, BANAE President Nagsen Sonare says that the CPL scholarship was not a new concession. It was an established facility, recognized by the government as a specialized professional education. Sonare also cited the 2005-06 Union Budget, in which the then Finance Minister announced in Parliament that all three existing scholarship schemes for SC/ST students – pre-matric, post-matric, and merit-based – would continue. In the same speech, he proposed a new window of larger scholarships for SC/ST students enrolled in select institutions of excellence. This later became the “Top Class Education for SC Students” scheme, which came into effect in June 2007.
Sonare says that in 2018, CPL was removed from the original Post Matric Scholarship framework, but the government did not discontinue it at that time. The benefit was transferred to the Top Class Education Scheme. The scheme’s guidelines, effective September 2018, also stipulate that only government or CPSE-run institutions approved by the DGCA can enlist in the scheme for CPL and type-rating courses. The organization cites this as a crucial difference. According to them, in 2018, only the scholarship location was changed and the facility remained, whereas in 2023, the entire facility was discontinued.
July 7, 2023: The Meeting That Changed Everything
The details of how the CPL scholarship was discontinued are linked to documents obtained with the Ministry’s RTI response. These pages are from file number V-11017/18/2022-SCD-I and state that they were generated from the Ministry’s e-office on November 22, 2024. These include the approved minutes of the steering committee, the meeting agenda, the list of participants, and file notings.
The Steering Committee of the Top Class Scholarship Scheme met on July 7, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. Saurabh Garg, the then Secretary of the Department of Social Justice, chaired the meeting. He was accompanied by Sanjay Pandey, Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor, the department, Kalyani Chadha, Joint Secretary, and Mahesh Kumar Meena, Deputy Secretary. Other ministries and departments included P.K. Banerjee, Joint Secretary of the Department of Higher Education, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Joint Secretary of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Megha Kaushik, Deputy Secretary of the UGC, S.F. Bachgundi, Joint Director of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and Arunava Dey of the NITI Aayog. The main agenda of the meeting was the allocation of 200 new slots available for 2023-24 based on the EFC’s recommendation. Furthermore, the removal of institutions that had not participated in the scheme for three years, limiting scholarships to first-year students, and the issue of flying institutions were discussed.
The agenda item on flying institutions contained some facts. It stated that the scheme listed two types of flying institutes: CPL training institutes and type-rating institutes, and that candidates had to complete both courses to become employable. All CPL training institutes are government-owned, while after the privatization of Air India, all type-rating institutes are private. The average fee for each course was stated to be ₹20 to 25 lakh. The scholarship limit for private flying institutes is ₹3.72 lakh per year per student, while for government institutes there is no such limit and the full tuition fee is reimbursed. A total of 12 flying institutes were listed in the scheme, but regular proposals for CPL training only came from the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi and the Telangana State Aviation Academy. This point concluded with the statement that the committee could discuss the relevance of continuing flying courses under the scheme.
According to the minutes, this issue was discussed “in detail.” The reasons recorded were that a type-rating course has to be done after CPL to become employable, and that after the privatisation of Air India, the ₹3.72 lakh limit for private institutes had led to no institute submitting proposals for type-rating.
The minutes state that there was a “broad consensus” that the CPL course should be removed from the scheme due to the very high fees and no certainty of employment for the beneficiary students, and the 55 slots allotted to flying institutes should be distributed among the newly added institutes.
At the same meeting, a request to include Delhi’s Red Bird Flying Club in the scheme was also under consideration. According to file notings, the committee rejected it because it had already decided to remove all flying institutes from the list.
CPL was not the only decision of this meeting. The same meeting also decided to include 42 “institutions of national importance” in the scheme with three slots each. According to the minutes, the Secretary also suggested including institutions like NISER and IISER, and NIFT Kolkata’s request was accepted. Thirty-one institutions that had not participated for three years were removed, and the number of new scholarship slots was increased from 1,500 to 1,700. Scholarships were limited to first-year students only, the income certificate exemption for those who passed the tenth grade from government schools was removed, and it was decided to introduce students to study after selection due to the high dropout rate.
CPL was removed from the original PMS framework in 2018. The government did not discontinue it at that time. Instead, this benefit was transferred to the Top Class Education Scheme for SC students. The entire facility was discontinued in 2023.
The Math of Slots in the File and the File Reaching the Minister
The file notings contain the details of these decisions. According to the note, 259 institutions were listed in the scheme, and the number of new scholarship slots was fixed at 1,500 in 2021-22. As per the EFC’s recommendation, these slots were to increase to 1,600 in 2022-23, 1,700 in 2023-24, 1,800 in 2024-25, and 1,900 in 2025-26. The note summarizes the meeting’s decisions. It states that the average cost of each flying course is ₹25 to 35 lakh. The agenda stated this average of ₹20 to 25 lakh. According to the note, due to the ₹3.72 lakh limit for private institutions, they were not submitting proposals for type-rating, so the committee decided to remove all flying institutes from the list and distribute their existing 55 slots.
The note also lists the number of vacant slots. Initially, the 200 new slots, the slots of the 31 removed institutes, and the slots of the 55 flying institutes were added, resulting in 286. It was later discovered that six institutes were on both lists for removal, so the vacant slots after the correction remained at 280. Of these, 42 institutes of national importance received 126 slots, NIFT Kolkata and NISER Bhubaneswar received three slots each, and the remaining 148 slots were increased among existing institutes. The revised guidelines removed flying institutes from the “List of Employed Institutes,” both for CPL and type-rating. The note concludes that the draft revised guidelines will be submitted for the approval of the Minister of Social Justice.
The pages of the file contain a sequence of notations between August 1, 2023, and August 22, 2023, including the names and times of the Section Officer to the Secretary.
In 2007, Dr. Buta Singh, Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), expressed concern that the government was not consulting the Commission on decisions and actions affecting the rights of Scheduled Castes. The Commission summoned the Law Secretary on August 7, 2007. The topic of discussion was that the Commission was not being consulted in the formulation of important laws and rules affecting the interests of Scheduled Castes.
Ministry’s Argument: No Provision for Correspondence with the NCSC
In its RTI response, the Ministry cited paragraph 7 of the scheme. This paragraph deals with the composition and powers of the Steering Committee. According to it, the committee recommends the addition or removal of institutions, equitable distribution of slots, and, if necessary, recommends appropriate changes to the scheme. Based on this, the response concludes that there is no provision for correspondence with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) before amending the scheme.
This issue is central to BANAE’s representation. According to Article 338(9) of the Constitution, the Union and every state government must consult the Commission on all major policy matters affecting Scheduled Castes. The organization argues that the complete abolition of an established scholarship for SC students is a “major policy matter,” and therefore, prior consultation with the Commission was necessary. It calls the RTI response’s argument “answering the wrong question.” According to it, the constitutional requirement does not depend on whether the departmental scheme contains a clause for correspondence with the NCSC. The real question is whether this was a major policy matter affecting Scheduled Castes within the meaning of Article 338(9). In the organization’s words, “Departmental planning cannot override, dilute, or dispense with the constitutional mandate.” It also argues that while the steering committee may have the authority to add or remove institutions and allocate slots, when the result is the complete elimination of the CPL scholarship, the matter moves into a much broader policy and constitutional realm, and internal administrative powers cannot override constitutional protections.
The 2007 letter, which returns as a question 19 years later
On October 26, 2007, T.K. Vishwanathan, Law Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, wrote a D.O. letter (No. 11051/07/Advice-A) to K.M. Chandrashekhar, then Cabinet Secretary. According to the letter, on August 7, 2007, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes summoned the Law Secretary to discuss the Commission’s failure to consult with the formulation of important laws and rules affecting the interests of Scheduled Castes. The then-Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Buta Singh, expressed clear concern that the Commission’s failure to consult was a violation of Article 338(9). The Law Secretary subsequently requested the Cabinet Secretary to advise all ministries and departments to strictly adhere to this provision.
BANAE argues that this letter proves that the implementation of Article 338(9) was not an unknown or new issue in 2023, as the Government of India’s own Law Secretary had already advised all ministries to strictly adhere to it in 2007. Therefore, the organization wants the ministry to explain whether this letter was reviewed when preparing the 2023 proposal, whether any subsequent instructions were issued to the ministries, whether the ministry was aware of them, whether any legal opinion was sought, and what was the legal basis for deeming NCSC consultation unnecessary.
BANAE Demands: Suspend the erring officials after an investigation
BANAE states that this matter cannot be resolved with a routine RTI response. In its complaint, the organization raises ten questions that can only be answered through a full investigation. These questions include who prepared the agenda for the CPL and flying institutes, who prepared the background note, who examined the implications of Article 338(9), whether NCSC consultation took place before July 7, 2023, and if not, who declared it unnecessary. The organization also asks whether the Law Secretary’s letter of 2007 was considered, whether any legal opinion was obtained, whether the committee was informed that the CPL scholarship has been an established facility for SC students, and whether it was informed that the proposal would result in the complete elimination of the facility. The final question is whether the decision was presented as a routine institutional or administrative matter, when in reality it was a major policy change affecting Scheduled Castes.
Based on these questions, the organization has requested Rahul Gandhi’s intervention. It wants Rahul Gandhi to personally speak to the Minister, draw his attention to the Law Secretary’s letter of 2007, and ask the Ministry to examine the entire original file of the July 7, 2023, decision, including the agenda, background notes, notings, legal opinions, approvals, minutes, correspondence, and revised guidelines.
The organization requests that the complete abolition of the CPL scholarship be examined as a matter of major policy under Article 338(9), and that the matter be referred to the NCSC for consultation before any final decision is taken on the continuation, modification, abolition, or reinstatement of the CPL. If the investigation establishes willful omission, concealment of facts, misleading the competent authority, gross negligence, or dereliction of constitutional obligations, action should be taken against the relevant officials as per the rules.
The most important demand is that the scholarships be immediately reinstated or revived, with the provision of CPL, CHPL, and multi-engine ratings, and mandatory flight charges, with appropriate eligibility and institutional safeguards. Finally, the organization also demands the repayment of the backlog of 200 CPL/CHPL scholarships pending since 2023.
Geetha Sunil Pillai
Courtesy: Hindi News