IIM might go ahead with admissions without quota

As the government tinkers over the next step for educational institutions, the IIM Ahmedabad is expected to go ahead with admissions without reserving seats for OBC quota in the academic year 2007-08, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 24, 2007, 24:52:28 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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As the government tinkers over the next step for educational institutions, the IIM Ahmedabad is expected to go ahead with admissions without reserving seats for OBC quota in the academic year 2007-08.

An indication in this regard was clear from what IIM-A Director Bakul Dholakia when reporters asked him about the admissions after the Supreme Court’s verdict. “That question can be answered by the order of the Supreme Court,” was his reply to a pointed question on OBCs not getting reservation benefit in the admissions.

IIM-A is, however, not expected to take a decision unilaterally. Dholakia said that soon IIM Directors would meet to discuss the issue and will wait for an instruction from the HRD ministry. Other IIM Directors refused to comment saying let the HRD ministry decide on admissions in B-schools first.

The ministry would soon give a fresh set of instructions on IIMs in wake of the court’s order on Monday. “IIMs will get requisite instructions from the government. Before that, we want to discuss the legal options available now available with the government,” a senior ministry official said. The government is expected to firm its next line of action by end of this week.

Dholaklia expects the government to decide soon the issue. “We understand that the Court has clearly said that 27 per cent reservation for OBC could not be applicable for the year 2007-08. Should that be the case, we would expect the Government to consider this aspect and take a decision pretty soon,” he said.

On the other hand, students in IIT Kanpur welcomed the court’s order and urged the Central government to withdraw the legislation implementing 27 per cent OBC quota. Praising the apex court's decision, state representative of the anti-quota Youth For Equality (YFE) forum Chandarshekhar said, “It is a victory for all those who want admissions to be based on merit”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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