Advani: Govt waiting for SC verdict on IIM fee cut

Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani said the government could take any action in the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) fee cut issue only after the Supreme Court announced its verdict.

Although IIM-Ahmedabad falls under Advani's parliamentary constituency, he has restrained from making any comment on the developments. The Deputy Prime Minister is in Sundernagar as part of his Bharat Uday Yatra.

Seeking to distance himself from the controversy, Advani told Business Standard, "The matter is being heard by the Supreme Court.

The Government can take action only after a decision has been taken by the apex court." Even Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has not made any comments on the issue.

Meanwhile, the meeting of the IIM-Ahmedabad Society, which was to be held on March 10, was adjourned after differences arose among the members, including the joint secretary of the human resources development ministry, V S Pandey, the financial adviser to the ministry, V Piparsania, and IIM-Ahmedabad Director Bakul Dholakia.

The meeting will now be held on Friday and will be chaired by the IIM-Ahmedabad board chairman NR Narayanamurthy, who is expected to reach Ahmedabad on Friday morning.

Ministry sources said Pandey and Piparsania would also attend the meeting.

"As it is not a fresh meeting of the Society, there will not be any new agenda. The meeting will decide on the question of approaching the Supreme Court seeking its inclusion as a party in the case," said an IIM-Ahmedabad Society member.

Meanwhile, two officers on special duty, probing the Common Admission Test paper leak case, are at the institute and have asked for several documents, including hard discs of some computers used by the admission committee.

The government had set up a committee to investigate the case.

The meeting of the CAT admission committee was held first in Kolkata and then in Kozhikode and Ahmedabad. The probe panel has already completed its investigations in IIM-Kolkata and IIM- Kozhikode.