Move to implead IIMs in fee case

An application to implead all the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) as respondents in a public interest litigation against reducing their fees was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The Supreme Court will hear the application on April 8, following which the institutes will be asked whether they want to be a party to the case.

The application was filed by Sandeep Parekh, Anish Mathew and Saikat Sengupta, who had also filed the public interest litigation in the apex court earlier.

Talking to Business Standard from New Delhi over telephone, Parekh, an advocate and also a visiting faculty member of IIM, Ahmedabad, said: "This impleadment application is an effort to make the main affected parties to join the PIL and put their case before the court on the fee cut and autonomy issue. In the application, we told the court that the principal issue in this petition is a challenge to the fee revision directive issued by the ministry of human resources development on the ground that the manner in which the directive has been issued constitutes a gross example of encroachment upon the autonomy of a premier educational institution."