IIM fee cut: petitioners to withdraw PIL

With the Union minister for human resource development rolling back the IIM fee cut order issued by his predecessor, Saikat Sengupta, Anish Methew and Sandeep Parikh, the three petitioners, have decided to withdraw the petition from the Supreme Court.

They had challenged the decision of the MHRD to reduce the fees for the post-graduate programmes (PGP) in the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and to injunct the ministry from interfering in the autonomy of these autonomous institutions.

The public interest writ petition was listed for hearing on July 19 before Justice Ruma Pal, Justice S B Sinha, and Justice S H Kapadia. Subsequently, the IIMs were made parties to the petition.

"We have decided to withdraw the writ petition from the Supreme Court as our purpose is achieved. The new ministry has rolled back the order passed by the earlier ministry and has assured that the autonomy of these prestigious institutions will not be encroached upon." Sandeep Parikh, one of the petitioners and an IIM alumnus told Business Standard.

The three petitioners had filed a public interest litigation on February 19 challenging the ministry's fee cut order.