IIMs suggest 3 dates for admission lists

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, on behalf of all the six IIMs, has sent a letter to the HRD ministry suggesting three dates to announce their first list of selected candidates without the OBC quota.

"We are ready to release the first list. In case the government recommends inclusion of the OBC quota, it can be done in the subsequent lists. We have to release the first list at the earliest to ensure that the academic session is not disturbed," IIM Bangalore Director Prakash Apte said. "We have submitted three dates, and April 21 is one of them. We have given the government enough time to respond," he added.

An IIM spokesperson, however, said if the government did not take a decision in time, they would be forced to release the list by the suggested dates.

The IIMs have already conducted the interviews for this academic year. At present, admissions for this academic session are on hold at all the IIMs till the Supreme Court passes its judgement on the reservation issue.

The government had asked all the centrally-governed elite institutes like IIMs and IITs to implement the 27% OBC quota. The IIMs had decided to do so in a phased manner starting this academic session. However, last week the Supreme Court put a stay on the law implementing the quota on the ground that the government had no clear data on who comprise OBCs.

If the IIMs release the first list on the suggested date without the OBC quota, about 1,350 candidates would get a call from all the six IIMs.

The IIMs and students will suffer on two counts if the government delays the decision. First, other management institutes in the country, which do not have to implement the OBC quota, have started releasing their admission lists. So, students who have appiled to IIMs as well as other institues might pay fees to other management institutes if the IIM lists are delayed. These fees, which ranges anywhere between Rs 1-12 lakh will not be refunded by the institutes should the students later get a call from the IIMs. Due to this, students will end up losing a lot of money. Management institutes like XLRI, SP Jain, MDI and ISB have aleady started realeasing their lists.

The IIMs need to release their list on time so that their academic year can start on time in July, and the students can complete all the formalities by June 30. The IIMs also hold a few prepratory classes for sudents before the academic year begins. They will not be able to hold these if the admission process is not completed on time. "If we are not able to realese the lists by the suggested dates, our whole acdemic year will suffer and we cannot let that happen," Apte said.

Before the SC stay on quotas, the IIMs had said they would implement 7% OBC quota this year, 10% next year and 10% in the following year. The IIMs had also decided to increase the number of seats to accommodate the OBC quota but now they have said they will have to wait for the government's directive to see if the increase in seats will happen.

"We discussed the issue and decided that two weeks have already passed since the admissions were stayed. How long can we wait? We agreed that protecting the interests of students is our first duty. Therefore, we will be deffering the increased intake rather than staying the admission process. None of the IIM directors had received any other communication from the central government following the stay,"  Bakul Dholakia, director, IIM-A, said.

Dholakia also took a swipe at the central government saying that it would have been ideal if the IIMs had been consulted before the circular staying the admission was drawn up since they would have proposed the same solution.

He also clarified that although the decision would not alter the planned OBC capacity expansion, under all circumstances, the admission process would be wrapped up by June 30.