OBC students in a fix, IIMs awaiting further Govt orders

New Delhi, Mar 29 (UNI) The Supreme Court judgement staying implementation of OBC quota in elite institutions has put the prospective beneficiary students in a fix.

The process for admitting OBC students under 27 per cent quota had started in IIMs, but now the apex court stay has put a question mark over it all.

Director of IIM Bangalore, Dr Prakash Apte told UNI that his Institute would wait for the Government order before putting the ongoing admission process on hold.

''We are waiting for an order from the Ministry in the light of today's Supreme Court judgement to decide any further step,'' he said.

Speaking to UNI over phone from Lucknow, IIM Lucknow Director Dr Devi Singh said they will have to discuss the implications of the judgement.

''Of course, the process for admission of students under the quota policy was on, but how the judgement will affect it now will have to be discussed with the Ministry,'' he said.

A study had recently indicated that 12,720 seats will have to be added to 59 institutions to implement the 27 per cent reservation without affecting the propects of the general category students.

IIMs like one in Bangalore had already decided to increase the seats from 250 to 270 to take in additional students under the quota.

It will now have to revise the whole list.

Senior Human Resource Development Ministry officials were tightlipped about the court decision's impact on the ongoing preparation for admitting OBC students in the IIMs and IITs.

''We cannot say anything beyond what the Minister has already said,'' said a senior official when asked by UNI.

Prof Krishna, Director of IIM, Kalicut also refused to make comment on the issue.

''At the moment, I would not like to say anything on the effect of the SC order,'' he said.

Mr Veerappa Moily, who headed the oversight committee for implementation of the quota policy in elite institutions today refused to comment on the judgement.

''I cannot comment unless I have studied the judgement in detail,'' he told reporters.

The same was the response from Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Meira Kumar.

She also said her Ministry would first like to go through the full text of the judgement before jumping on to any conclusion.

However, Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh said the judgement was no setback to the government, and he was fully confident that after the certain legal requirements were met by the government, the apex court would validate the quota policy.

The court today stayed till further orders the operation of the notification issued in January this year under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 providing 27.5 per cent reservations to the OBCs in admission to the centrally-run educational institutions from the academic year 2007-2008.

UNI