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After judgment, IIM admission schedules deferred

Anita Joshua

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

Talking point: The Supreme Court verdict being hotly debated on the campus of the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: Within hours of Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) decided to defer their admission schedules for 2008-09.

A notice posted on the website of IIM-Bangalore – which conducted this year’s Combined Admission Test (CAT) for the much-in-demand postgraduate programme – said the admission offers, scheduled to be announced on Saturday, were postponed.

Though no reason was given, it is learnt that the IIMs deferred the process to factor in the judgment, which upheld reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in central institutions of higher learning.

Separate shortlist

Since the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 was in place, most institutions had been providing a column for OBC identification in their application forms and making a separate shortlist for the OBCs for implementation as and when there was clarity on the issue.

In the CAT notice for this session itself, the IIMs made it clear that OBC reservation would be notified if there was a communication to this effect from the Human Resource Development Ministry. This communication is likely to be sent in the coming days.

IIM-C postpones publication of list

Indrani Dutta reports from Joka (West Bengal)

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), has decided to postpone by a week publication of the admission list for its flagship postgraduate programme. It was due on Friday.

“We will await instructions from the Ministry,” director Shekhar Chaudhuri told The Hindu on the campus here.

He said steps were under way to revamp facilities at the institute and the number of seats would be increased from 300 to 462 by 2010. It has the highest number of seats among the IIMs.

Beginning with a six per cent increase this year, the number would be increased by 54 per cent by 2010. The seats were being increased by more than the percentage of reservation stipulated for the OBC so as to prevent any reduction in the general category seats.

Tuition for OBCs

Tuitions might be given to the OBC students. “We will take necessary steps like giving them tuitions in quantitative subjects, if required.” A system of imparting tuition to students lagging behind was already in place. “We will try to bring up the disadvantaged section.”

The IIMs already have a quota for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and for physically challenged students.

“We’ll fulfil mandate”

To a question whether reservation would dilute their brand equity, Mr. Chaudhuri said that as a public institution, the IIM would have to carry out the mandate.

“We will do what is required of us by the nation.”

Ready to implement order

Manas Dasgupta reports from Ahmedabad:

The admission process in the IIM-Ahmedabad, scheduled to begin on Friday, is likely to be delayed by at least a week.

Director Samir Barua said the directors of all six IIMs were expected to take a joint decision on starting the admission process afresh.

The IIM-A was “ready to implement the law of the land” and would implement reservation as directed by the court. It had started taking steps to expand infrastructure for increasing the intake to compensate the loss of open category seats.

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