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Anita Joshua

Await directions from the Union HRD Ministry

New Delhi April 20 Students seeking entry into the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will have to wait longer to know if they have made it, with the six institutions on Friday deciding to defer the release of their admission lists till further directions from the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.

Though the IIMs had last week announced that they would not be able to defer the release of their admission lists beyond this coming Saturday, they decided to fall in line after receiving a strongly worded directive from the Ministry late on Thursday, asking them to keep their admission lists on hold.

The Ministry had on April 5 asked all central educational institutions to keep their admission lists in abeyance in view of the Supreme Court stay on 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Following the April 5 communication, the IIMs last week decided to defer announcement of their admission list — originally slated to be released on April 12 — to April 21. If the stay was not vacated by then and in the absence of further communication from the Ministry, the IIM directors informed the Government that they would go ahead with admissions after April 21 "as per last year's capacity'' without implementing the OBC reservation and increasing their intake.

Meeting off

However, in view of the fresh communication from the Ministry, the IIM directors — who were to meet in the Capital on Friday to take stock of the situation — cancelled the meeting at the eleventh hour. The meeting had been called on Wednesday after the Supreme Court posted hearing on the Centre's application for clarification/modification of the interim order for April 23.

In its latest directive to the IIMs, the HRD Ministry reiterated that all central educational institutions — aided, funded or established by the Central Government as defined in the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Act, 2006 — are required to comply with its April 5 communication not to issue any admission offers for the 2007 academic year till further directions. "Any unilateral decision by any central educational institution would be a violation of the (April 5) communication,'' the Ministry pointed out.

"Equally concerned"

Empathising with the IIM contention that delay in the announcement of the admission list would upset the academic calendar, the Ministry said: "The Central Government is equally concerned with the problems in the short term that may be faced by the institutions and some sections of students due to the delay in issuing offers of admissions, and is taking all steps necessary to facilitate admissions of all sections of students in the central educational institutions at the earliest.''

Consequent to their decision to defer announcement of their admission lists, all IIMs posted this information on their Web sites. The most detailed update was provided by IIM-Ahmedabad, which also posted the two communications received from the Ministry on its Web site.

Though the IIMs had taken note of the April 5 communication by deferring the announcement of their admission lists to April 21, the Ministry did not take kindly to their setting a deadline fearing that it would jeopardise its case in the Supreme Court.

If one set of institutions went ahead with their schedule, the Ministry's apprehension was that it would put others also on the same path on the premise of autonomy.

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