Friday 1 June 2012

Minority quota in IITs on hold; ready options, students told


New Delhi: Putting the 4.5% minority sub-quota on hold till legal challenges are resolved, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) on Thursday sought to allay students’ fears and advised them to expand their choice of courses. 
    The statement came on the back of the Andhra Pradesh high court judgment scrapping the sub-quota, putting in quandary the over 300 IIT aspirants who had been shortlisted under the provision. The urgency in the case is because counselling for students is already underway. 
    IIT-JEE organizing chairman Prof G B Reddy said, “The students should expand their choices to take care of both eventualities (if the HC decision is upheld or stayed by the Supreme Court).’’ 
    While law minister Salman Khurshid has categorically said the government would approach the SC to challenge the high court order, it remains to be seen whether it will be able to get a stay. In the wake of the court order, IITs have decided to abide by the ruling, “ignoring” the quota provision till further legal developments. The statement said “the judgment of the Andhra Pradesh HC High Court will be implemented by ignoring the provision for reservation of 4.5% seats and by converting seats meant for OBC (non-creamy layer)-minority community to OBC (noncreamy layer) category”. 
    With this, about 325 candidates who had been shortlisted under the sub-quota for counseling may have to compete with the 27% OBC non-creamy layer quota.

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