New Delhi, Mar 19: The government today refused to give a written undertaking to the Supreme Court to maintain autonomy of the IIMs. The SC has agreed to give a hearing on this case again on April 8th The Supreme Court would revive the petition which means that all issues regarding fee structure, IIM balance sheet etc. would be taken up afresh in the next hearing wherein all the IIMs would be present.
The court had on March 12 given the Centre a week to clarify its stand on its commitment to not interfere with the functioning of the prestigious business schools. It had even asked the Centre to provide adequate funds in view of the drastic reduction of the admission fee from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 30,000. The change in fee structure would affect the students the most, according to the IIM Board of Directors. While IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta have opposed the HRD Ministry move, IIM-Lucknow surprisingly supported the government.
Bureau report