Putting the ball in the HRD Ministry's court, IIMs and IITs today said they would go by the directive of the government on providing 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBCs).These top institutions were reacting to the Supreme Court order staying the law extending 27% reservation for OBCs."Now the Common Admission Test(CAT) Group will meet soon and decide regarding the OBC quota admission on the basis of the communication received" from the HRD Ministry, IIM- Ahmedabad Director Bakul Dholakia told reporters.Voicing similar views, directors of IIM-Kolkata and IIT- Kharagpur Shekhar Choudhury and S K Dubey respectively told PTI that they would go by the Centre's decision on the reservation issue.IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua said his institution would await the final verdict of the apex court to decide its future course of action.The IIM-A had decided to increase the seats phasewise in a span of three years to complete the 27% quota.Dholakia said in Ahmedabad, noting that it wanted to increase this year six per cent seats in the first phase based on the order of the HRD ministry.The IIMs will complete the admission process for this year by April 12, Dholakia added.Sources in the IIM-A, however, said it would be impossible for the institute to implement the six per cent OBC quota in this academic year as the next hearing on the case will take place in the apex court in August and IIM-A will be completing the admission process by April 12.This means that the admission procedure will done this year without the OBC quota, the sources said.
