IIM Ahmedabad issued a notice by Gujarat HC over alumni's PIL seeking reservation in PhD admissions

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) was issued a notice by the Gujarat High Court on a plea that was seeking implementation of reservation in its PhD programmes for candidates from SC, ST and OBC categories.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by Global IIM Alumni Network, IIM's alumni association. The PIL stated that though IIM-A was both governed and funded by the Ministry of Education, while conducting the admission process for its PhD programme it was clearly violating the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006.  

The notices were issued to the central and state governments, University Grants Commission (UGC), IIM-A and others by the division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Hemant M Prachchhak. However, the court refused to “interject with the admission process, which has already commenced” while it turned down the request of the petitioner to setting the date of the next hearing before January 17, 2022, the date on which the ongoing admission process for the programmes concludes.

The PIL mentioned that out of the 20 IIMs in India, 15 provide reservations for the same programme as per the CERA Act. Since all the IIMs in the country are governed by the IIM Act, 2017, this makes IIMs, and IIM-A as well, central institutions under the CERA Act, it stated.

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IIM-A had been carrying out an admission process that was in gross violation of the 2006 Act and Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the petitioner claimed as per a report in The Indian Express. It is the CERA Act that provides reservations in central institutions for those students who fall under SC, ST and OBC to the extent of 15 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively. IIM-A is a central institution under the act and yet, IIM-A has not provided reservations for admission to its PhD programme.