IIM fee cut: petitioners to withdraw PIL from SC

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 on Friday.

The three petitioners had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) on February 19 challenging the ministry's fee cut order of February 5.

The petitioners have written to the registrar of the Supreme Court seeking permission of the court to withdraw the civil writ petition on Wednesday and would approach to the court on Monday.

"The new government has publicly acknowledged the illegality of the fee cut order and has withdrawn the same. The Ministry has also initiated a dialogue with the IIMs and we are no longer apprehensive about the future of these autonomous institutions," Parikh added.

The last hearing on April 16, the IIMs had sought time in view of the on-going dialogue between IIMs and the MHRD. The court then had deferred the hearing till July 19. Bakul Dholakia, director of IIM, Ahmedabad could not be contacted for his comments.

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Happy ending

• 3 petitioners had filed a PIL on February 19 challenging the ministry's decision to cut fee for post-graduate programmes in IIMs
• Withdrawal of PIL follows the rollback order passed by the earlier ministry
• At the April 16 meeting, IIMs had sought time in view of the on-going dialogue between IIMs and the ministry