IIMs suggest dates for admission lists

Likely to go ahead if the government does not respond in time.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, on behalf of all the six IIMs, has sent a letter to the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry suggesting three dates to announce their first list of selected candidates without the Other Backward Castes (OBC) quota.

"We are ready to release the first list. In case the government recommends inclusion of the OBC quota, it can be done in the subsequent lists. We have to release the first list at the earliest to ensure that the academic session is not disturbed," IIM Bangalore Director Prakash Apte said.

"We have submitted three dates and April 21 is one of them. We have given the government enough time to respond," he added.

An IIM spokesperson, however, said if the government did not take a decision in time, they would be forced to release the list by the suggested dates.

"We discussed the issue and decided that two weeks have already passed since the admissions were stayed. How long can we wait? We agreed that protecting the interests of students is our first duty. Therefore, we will be deferring the increased intake rather than staying the admission process," said Bakul Dholakia, Director, IIM-A

The IIMs have already conducted the interviews for this academic year. At present, admissions for this academic session are on hold at all the IIMs till the Supreme Court passes its judgement on the reservation issue.

The government had asked all the centrally-governed elite institutes like IIMs and IITs to implement the 27 per cent OBC quota. The IIMs had decided to do so in a phased manner starting this academic session. However, last week the Supreme Court put a stay on the law implementing the quota on the ground that the government had no clear data on who comprise OBCs.

If the IIMs release the first list on the suggested dates and without the OBC quota, about 1350 candidates would get a call from all the six IIMs.

The IIMs and students will suffer on two counts if the government delays the decision. First, other management institutes in the country, which do not have to implement the OBC quota, have started releasing their admission lists.

So students who have applied to IIMs as well as other institutes might pay fees to other management institutes if the IIM lists are delayed. These fees, which ranges anywhere between Rs 1-12 lakh will not be refunded by the institutes should the students later get a call from the IIMs. Due to this students will end up losing a lot of money.

Management institutes like XLRI, SP Jain, MDI and ISB have already started releasing their lists.

The IIMs need to release their list on time so that their academic year can start on time in July and the students can complete all the formalities by June 30. The IIMs also hold a few preparatory classes for students before the academic year begins.

They will not be able to hold these if the admission process is not completed on time. "If we are not able to release the lists by the suggested dates, our whole academic year will suffer and we cannot let that happen," Apte said.

Before the SC stay on quotas, the IIMs had said they would implement 7 per cent OBC quota this year, 10 per cent next year and 10 per cent in the year after that. The IIMs had also decided to increase the number of seats to accommodate the OBC quota but now they have said they will have to wait for the government's directive to see if the increase in seats will happen.