Freds Polling Place

Following is the chronology of events in the case involving the constitutional validity of the controversial law providing 27 per cent OBC quota in Ce

The Indian Institutes of Management are likely to release their final admission list for general category and SC/ST students this week, possibly as early as Tuesday. But Other Backward Classes candidates will have to wait.

“A final list for the OBC candidates may be delayed till the end of the month, possibly longer,” an IIM official said.

The Centre today notified the OBC quota in all its higher education institutions, saying the reservation must be introduced this year.

The IIMs had decided to put off their admission lists — earlier scheduled for April 11 — after the Supreme Court cleared the quota on April 10. The premier B-schools had said they were waiting for directions from the government.

“Now, with the official notification today, we are in a position to release the general and SC/ST lists anytime. We were prepared earlier for April 11, so it should not take time,” an IIM director told The Telegraph.

The IIMs will need at least one day to firm up the lists again before they can possibly release them on Tuesday, the director said.

The Centre has made it clear to the IIMs that unlike the Indian Institutes of Technology, they will not be allowed any leeway from earlier commitments on this year’s quota volume.

“In our opinion, the IITs face more genuine problems in implementing the quotas. Most of the IIMs have, in any case, committed themselves to very few OBC seats in the first year of implementation,” a human resource development ministry official said.

IIM Calcutta is striving for 3 per cent OBC reservation this year, IIM Ahmedabad for 6 per cent and IIM Bangalore for 7 per cent. By the 2010-11 academic year, however, each central institution must implement the full 27 per cent quota.

Each IIM is re-scrutinising the scores of OBC candidates who appeared in the entrance examination — the Common Admission Test — and preparing a list.

“If a particular IIM had a percentile of 99 as its cutoff for general students, it will be lowered to around 96 for the OBC candidates. Those who make this cutoff will be considered for an interview and group discussion (GD), just like students of other categories,” an IIM source said.

The process, however, is complicated. Several OBC candidates had already been called to an interview and GD under the general category before the Supreme Court order.

These students will not be called for an interview or GD again. Instead, they will be given the option of choosing whether to apply under the general category or as OBC candidates, the source said.

Choosing the quota may increase their chances of securing seats at the B-school of their choice.

The general category list will have a longer “waiting list” this time to offset the vacancies created if these OBC students choose a quota seat, the official said.


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