Privatization in Indian public higher education has been expanding its size and scale through three methods: de jure privatization de facto privatization and private tuition and coaching. The University Grants Commissionhas adopted a critical path for privatization through ‘provision of market-autonomy’ to the colleges in the University of Delhi. Apart from being charged with double taxation, teachers are being treated as contractual labour under the neo-liberal reforms, the process of contractualization is a reality of de jure privatization but it is also promoted by the public higher educational institutions as a part of de facto privatization. With increasing de jure and de facto privatization, and expanding private coaching and tuition, there are challenges for equity and access for the non-affluent population due to expanded disparities between the lower and upper socio-economic strata of students. The role of welfare state in Indian higher education has declined under the agenda of neo-liberal economics.