Water cannons being used to disperse anti-quota protesters in New Delhi. File picture

New Delhi, July 15: The Centre is preparing for a last-ditch effort to salvage education quotas, days before the start of a new academic session slams shut the window of opportunity on aspiring students.

Most universities will open by the first week of August, ending for this year the possibility of OBC reservations that were made law by Parliament but put on hold by the Supreme Court.

The human resource development ministry will argue before the apex court tomorrow that universities and institutes which mentioned OBC reservations in their prospectus be exempt from its stay on the quota bill.

The Centre is expected to tell the court that failure to allow reservations in those universities this year would amount to a “breach of trust” of applicants.

This would allow OBC candidates to lodge cases against the central universities for violating their own prospectus, it is likely to argue.

“Why should the universities suffer the possibility of litigation for complying with the law? The stay hadn’t come about at the time,” an official said.

The ploy is clever as most institutes — including IITs and IIMs — had released their prospectus before the March 29 Supreme Court stay.

Some like the IIMs played it smart, with their prospectus stating OBC students would be admitted based on the status of the case before the court. It is not clear whether the elite business schools, known to treat reservation as anathema, would continue to enjoy exemption from quota if the Centre’s strategy succeeds.

For others like the IITs and Delhi University, things would be clearer. Plans for the implementation of the reservation were visible in their admission forms, with the introduction of a separate box to be ticked by OBC candidates.

The Centre, if it gets its way, would therefore have managed to push through reservations for most institutions.

The ministry is also expected to indirectly blame the Supreme Court for “dashing the hopes” of students who had applied before the reservations were stayed. It will try to deflect criticism of a botched legal battle on the reservation bill onto the apex court.

“We are willing to distinguish between those universities that announced reservations and others which didn’t. We want the court to take a compassionate view on the former category, since at the time they applied the court hadn’t given its stay order. Why should the students suffer?” asked another official.