After the six IIMs decided to declare their merit lists on April 21, IIM-Ahmedabad has said the list of qualified candidates will be released from 11 am onwards on that day. Other IIMs are also expected to follow suit. The government, meanwhile, is expected to move the Supreme Court tomorrow.Director of IIM-Bangalore Prof Prakash Apte, who wrote to the Union HRD Ministry on behalf of the IIMs on April 12, has said in his missive that the admission process will be done in two stages: the first list on April 21 will be as per last year’s intake and the second list will have the additional seats, which need to be upgraded due to OBC quota implementation.Nowhere does the letter oppose the idea of OBC reservations, rather it gives ample time and scope to the government to act and get the stay order vacated.The letter, which does not ask for an approval from the HRD Ministry, is quite emphatic: “We will not be issuing any offers till April 21. Offers would be released on April 21 and the intake would be limited to the level prevailing in 2006, and by using the same set of criteria, for example, in case of IIM-Bangalore, it would be 240 students.”Prof Apte’s letter to HRD Ministry’s Joint Secretary (technical education) Ravi Mathur, who is also on the governing bodies of all IIMs, accessed by The Indian Express, says: “The first choice of the students is to study at the IIMs. However, a number of institutions (most of them are of the same pedigree as the IIMs) have finalised their admission lists and have sent offer letters to students.”“Acceptances from the students can only complete when they pay (in advance) substantial sums—sometimes in the region of Rs 10 to 14 lakh. These advances are usually not refundable. Any delay in the issuance of the offer letters by IIMs will have an adverse impact on both the students and IIMs,” his letter argued.He then gives reasons to substantiate: “The students tend to lose the amount they have paid to the institutes that have offered admissions, if they were to accept the offer and then opt for IIMs.”“And where he were to stand by the acceptance, the IIMs would be losing out in terms of getting the best candidates,” he reasoned.He also explained the two-stage admission process, the second list depending on the government’s ability to get the stay order by the Supreme Court vacated.So, according to IIM sources, the first list will be of 1,350 candidates for the two-year MBA programmes (as per the 2006 level) and the second list will have 157 candidates. The academic session begins by mid-June.
