New Delhi, February 10
A public interest litigation (PIL) was today filed in the Supreme Court against the government’s controversial order reducing the fee structure of the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs).
The PIL was filed jointly by a lawyer, a former student of IIM Bangalore and a student of IIM Ahmedabad in the apex court registry, which is likely to be listed for hearing shortly.
Advocate Sandeep Parekh, IIM post-graduate Anish Mathew and its student Saiket Sengupta, in their petition, had named the Union Government and Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Murli Manohar Joshi as the respondents.
They have sought to strike down the February 5 order of the HRD Ministry on the ground that it was aimed as to gain the control over the six IIMs of the country.
The order provides for reducing the fee from nearly Rs 2 lakh per annum to Rs 30,000 from the 2004-05 academic session.
Alleging that the step was taken by the government with “an eye on the votebank”, the PIL said the Centre had “ignored” the recommendations of the Kurien Committee, pursuant to which the fee had been increased gradually since 1992 to ensure financial independence of the IIMs.
They said the decision taken on the basis of U R Rao Committee report did not apply to the six IIMs in the country.
