IIM-A, Centre receive notice from Gujarat HC over PIL seeking quota in PhD programme

The petitioner claims that IIM-A admissions had been carried out in gross violation of the 2006 Act and Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has received notice from Gujarat High Court on a plea seeking implementation of reservation for the SC, ST and OBC candidates in its PhD programme. According to the reports, public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed by the alumni association of the IIM, Global IIM Alumni Network stating that although IIM-A was governed and funded by the Union education ministry, it was violating the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 while carrying out the admission process for the PhD programme.

Notices have been issued by the division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Hemant M Prachchhak to respondents IIM-A, the Central and state governments, University Grants Commission (UGC) and others. However, the court has refused to "interject with the admission process, which has already commenced", while turning down the petitioner's request to keep the next date of hearing before the current admission process for the programme ends on January 17, 2022.

According to NDTV, the PIL filed against IIM-A states that 15 out of 20 IIMs across the country follow CERA Act to provide reservations for the same programme. All the IIMs are governed by the IIM Act, 2017, which makes IIMs including IIM-A as central institutions under the CERA Act, it said.

The claims made by the petitioner states that IIM-A admissions had been carried out in gross violation of the 2006 Act and Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

The CERA Act provides for the reservation of students belonging to the SC, ST, OBC to the extent of 15 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, in Central educational institutions, it stated. Despite being a Central institution under the Act, IIM-A has not provided a reservation for admission to its PhD programme, the plea alleged.

Seeking a stay on the ongoing admission process, the petitioner asked the court to direct the institute to follow and implement Article 15 (5) of the Constitution by providing reservation to the SC, ST and OBC candidates as well as persons with disabilities with requisite quota.

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