IIM-A to go ahead without OBC quota

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad on Monday said it will go ahead with the admission process for the 2007 batch without providing for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in the wake of the Supreme Court order.

"That question can be answered by the order of the Supreme Court," Bakul Dholakia, director, IIM(A) said when asked if it was safe to presume at this stage that the 27 per cent quota for OBCs will not be there in the current academic session.

Dholakia's remarks came shortly after the Supreme Court rejected Centre's plea for vacation of the stay on OBC quota while agreeing to examine the request for referring the quota issue to a Constitution bench.

He, however, said that all the six IIM directors would meet to discuss the issue and would await a fresh directive from the HRD ministry.

"We understand that the Court has clearly said that 27 per cent reservation for OBC could not be applicable for the year 2007-08," he said.

"Should that be the case, we would expect the government to consider this aspect and take a decision pretty soon," he said. 

Consequentially, if the HRD ministry revises its directives of April 5 and April 19, "We will be able to decide our course of action straightaway," he said.

"But till we are able to talk among each other (directors of the six IIMs) and also discuss the matter with the ministry, it will not be possible to make any observation one way or the other at this point of time," he said. 

Asked whether the academic schedule of IIMs for this year would be disturbed in any manner, Dholakia said "at this point of time, there is no such indication. If there is a communication by the government in one or two days, we will adjust the schedule accordingly".

He said earlier, a three-week period was given to accept the offer letter. This might be reduced to about two weeks. "Rest of the process will remain the same," he said.

"As on date, everything is on schedule. It has only meant delay of about ten days in announcing admissions," he said.

Dholakia said he would be contacting the other IIM directors by Tuesday. He said all the IIMs have taken unanimous decision all along and people have adjusted to ensure that unanimity continues.

"We presume that the Supreme Court order means that OBC quota will not be implemented in the 2007-08 batch," Dholakia said.

"Last week there was lack of clarity. But now things are very clear and we expect the Human Resource Development  ministry to soon revise their orders of April 5 and April 19 (where the ministry had asked the IIMs to withhold their admission process till further order)," Dholakia added.

"We will start the admission process in the IIMs once we receive some communication from the HRD ministry," he said. "All stakeholders are interested in the welfare of the students and everybody agree on this," he added.

Meanwhile, the IIM Bangalore said it has decided to wait for further instructions from the HRD ministry. Its spokesman said students had been informed that they would not be displaying the list of the selected candidates till further instructions from the ministry.