The Hindu : IIM Board of Governors to study court decision

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 28, 2004

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IIM Board of Governors to study court decision

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD, FEB. 27. Stunned by the Supreme Court's verdict in favour of the Central Government on the reduction of fees in the Indian Institutes of Management, the IIM, Ahmedabad, Director, Bakul Dholakia, said the scheduled meeting of its Board of Governors would study the implications on April 3.

Prof. Dholakia, who made it clear that he was speaking only on behalf of the IIM-Ahmedabad, and not the five IIMs, as was the case in his media conferences earlier, also denied any move to approach the court on the fee reduction and other issues.

"There is no such specific action plan,'' he said when asked about the Supreme Court's observation that the IIMs would be free to move the court on the issue, despite the dismissal of the public interest litigation filed by some students of IIM.

He also did not reply to a question on the possible advancing of the Board of Governors meeting.

Prof. Dholakia said the April 3 meeting of the Board of Governors, which was earlier scheduled to consider the directive from the Centre to reduce the fees in IIMs, would discuss the issue "in totality,'' including the implications of the apex court's judgment and the "assurances'' given by the Human Resource Development Ministry to the court about maintaining the autonomy of IIMs.

He said he believed that "effective operational autonomy'' would be the key to maintaining the quality of education and standard of the premier management institutions despite the fee reduction.

He was yet to get a copy of the Supreme Court's order on the disposal of the PIL and the details of the special assurances given by the HRD Ministry. "We need to examine all the implications in detail before coming to a conclusion,'' he said.

He made it clear that a decision on the entire issue, including the fee reduction in IIM-A, would be taken only at the meeting of the Board of Governors.

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