Some Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have not yet enforced the reservation provisions for admission in research courses and faculty recruitment despite laws mandating the Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) to do the same, according to responses to an RTI application filed by The Telegraph.
Under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006, CEIs including IITs and IIMs have to provide 15 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 27 per cent reservation in admission for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) respectively. Similarly, the CEI (Reservation in Teacher Cadre) Act 2019 provides for quota for the SCs, STs and OBCs in faculty posts.
However, IIM Ahmedabad, in its reply to the RTI application, has said it has not implemented reservations in PhD courses.
“There is no annual prescribed intake specified for the PhD programme at IIMA and therefore reservation cannot be specified. The institute admits students based on their passing the admission criteria,” said the reply.
Copies of communications between the ministry of education (MoE) and IIMs, obtained through the RTI application, show the MoE has written to the IIMs in November 2019, August 2021 and March 2022 to implement reservations in faculty posts. It had asked them to prepare a roster indicating the reserved posts in the faculty list and provide details about it. Till May 2022, nine IIMs had not provided sanctioned strengths for SCs, STs and OBCs. They were IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Kashipur, Ranchi, Rohtak, Trichy and Udaipur.
Hansaraj Suman, president of All India Universities and Colleges SC/ST/OBC Teachers’ Association, termed the non-implementation of quota as a violation of the law. “The pretext that there is no fixed intake and that is why reservation cannot be given is no justification,” he said.
An IIM faculty member said that the institutes advertise for vacant posts, but when the applicants submit their details, they are scrutinised by the director, dean and area faculty.
“They use a lot of discretion during scrutiny. Most of the candidates, who belong to SCs, STs and OBCs, get rejected,” said the faculty member.
This prompted certain faculty members and activists to welcome the IIM (Amendment) Bill 2023 introduced by the MoE in Parliament last week, hoping that the B-Schools may no more escape the government policy of quota on the pretext of autonomy.
The IIMs are currently enjoying greater autonomy in managing their affairs under the IIM Act. The board of governors (BoGs) of each institute appoints its own chairperson, directors and members to take major decisions. The IIM (Amendment) Bill says the chairperson will be nominated by the Visitor, the President of India, and the director will be appointed by the BoG based on the recommendation of a search panel headed by the chairperson.