Akshaya Mukul I TNN
New Delhi: The Union HRD ministry on Tuesday said SC/ST/OBC quota had been filled in all IIMs and around 35 OBC vacancies existed in IITs, all in the old ones, while some of the new IITs had even given 27% reservation to OBCs.
The ministry is planning a detailed response to the petition filed in the Supreme Court on Monday stating that as 432 SC/ST/OBC seats were lying vacant in IITs, the apex court should ask the government to fill these seats with general candidates. Officials said there were still 66 SC/ST vacancies in the new IITs.
Sources said one way in which the OBC quota could be fully filled was through change in the creamy layer criterion. The National Commission for Backward Classes has already recommended changing the criterion from an annual income of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The HRD ministry expects the social justice ministry to notify the change at the earliest.
According to information collected from IITs, about 35 seats for OBC students remain vacant. While the seven old IITs implemented 9% OBC reservation this year, the six new institutes implemented the entire 27% OBC reservation. This year, the IITs did not have to relax their entry norms to take in OBC students.
All OBC students who were admitted to the IITs figured on the general category list. However, students benefited from the reservation at the seat allotment level. Some of the vacant OBC seats were in the architecture stream.
IIT officials said these seats could not be filled as many students did not qualify in the aptitude test they needed to take in addition to the JEE to get into architecture.
On the other hand, the IIMs, which implemented differing OBC quota—ranging from as low as 3% in IIMKolkata to as high as 21% in IIM-Kozhikode—were forced to lower their entry norms for OBC candidates.
For instance, if the cut-off for general category students after the CAT stood at 38% at IIM-Kolkata, it was 35% for OBC students.
(With inputs by Hemali Chhapia)
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