Plea against IIM fee cut order in SC likely today

A writ petition is expected to be filed in the Supreme Court today challenging the legality of the February 5 order issued by the human resources development (HRD) ministry directing the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to cut their fees.

The petition will be filed by Vipin Gupta, an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad and visiting faculty member of IIM-Indore and IIM-Bangalore. The guest faculty of IIM-Calcutta, along with two alumni of IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Ahmedabad will stand as petitioners.

The petition will question the validity of the HRD ministry's order as the Memorandums of Association (MoAs) of the three major IIMs "" Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bangalore "" say that without consulting the state government concerned, the ministry or the government of India cannot take any decision on the fees of these institutes.

The petition is expected to be listed in the Supreme Court tomorrow, following which the court will set a date for its hearing. The court is already hearing another petition filed earlier by Sandeep Parekh, a visiting faculty member of IIM-Ahmedabad, along with two alumni members, Saikat Sengupta and Anish Mathew.

"The government is trying to go beyond the powers available to it in its relationship with the IIMs and thus violating the autonomy of the IIMs illegally. On February 5, the HRD ministry issued an order whereby the fees charged by the IIMs was directed to be reduced from near about Rs 1,50,000 a year to Rs 30,000 a year and with reference to an earlier public interest litigation (PIL), the petitioners point that unfortunately it was not brought to the notice of the court that the impugned order dated February 5, and the procedure adopted for passing such an order per se was illegal and in violation of Article 3(H) and Article 5 of the MoA, which is the basis on which IIMs have been established," said the draft petition.

Article 5 of the MoA of IIM-Ahmedabad, which is almost similar to the MoAs of two other IIMs, reads: "The Centre in consultation with the state government may take such action and issue such directions as it may consider necessary in respect of any of the matters dealt with in the report regarding the Society or the Institute, as the case may be, and the Society shall be bound to comply with such directions."

While Article 5 empowers the Centre to take any major decision like a fee cut after it consults the state government, Article 3(H) of the MoA says "to fix and demand such fees and other charges as may be laid down in the bye-laws made under the Rules of Society."