IIM admissions put on hold indefinitely
IIM admissions put on hold indefinitely
Aparna Kalra
New Delhi: Falling in line with the Union government’s wishes, the Indian Institutes of Management said they will not declare their admissions list until the quota issue is resolved or until further directions from the ministry of human resource development.
This move, announced on the websites of the IIMs, puts the spotlight back on the Supreme Court (SC), which is slated to hear a government petition on Monday (23 April) to lift a stay order on extending seat reservations in colleges to other backward classes.
The IIMs said they have no choice but to await further government orders depending on the SC ruling on 23 April. “Then we will wait for the government to decide. If they want, we will not make any admissions for next year," said a seemingly exasperated Prakash Apte, director, IIM Bangalore, in a phone interview.
This is the second time in a fortnight the elite business schools have had to put off announcing the names of successful candidates who have won seats for the academic year, which starts in June.
Both deferments were based on directives from the ministry, which oversees education, to hold off admissions till it gets a reversal on a Supreme Court stay on a 27% seat reservation for other backward classes or OBCs in all centrally-funded institutions, such as IIMs, Indian Institutes of Technology and the Delhi University.
“We were going to meet today (20 April), but last night the HRD ministry told us that there is nothing they can do (to allow admissions to take place)," said Apte.
IIM Ahmedabad, in a notice on its website, said that “the offer of admission to successful candidates for post graduate programme 2007-09 batch will be made only after the underlying issue is resolved."
The IIM Kozhikode website said: “In view of this notification, IIM-K is unable to issue the offers of admission. Offers of admission to selected candidates will be issued as and when there is clearance from the ministry."
The case against the government’s move to extend seat reservations to OBCs is being fought by anti-quota groups such as Youth for Equality.
A lawyer representing the forum said earlier this week he intended to make a strong reply in court on 23 April against the government petition to reverse the stay order on quotas for OBCs.
In its stay order last month, SC held that the 1931 census, the last caste-based census, was antiquated and could not be used for pegging quota size.
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