http://www.deccan.com/SunEditorial/Editorial.asp?#Quota suspense
Quota suspense Nothing could be messier than the mess that has resulted from the Centre's attempts to persuade the Supreme Court to modify its march 28 stay order on the issue of 27 per cent reservations in higher educational institutions for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The Union human resource development ministry has directed the six management institutes to put on hold the admission process till the Apex Court hears the matter on Monday. Union HRD minister Arjun Singh's point that since the hearing is not complete it will be only fair to postpone admissions is undoubtedly valid but it does not take into account the agonising suspense hundreds of OBC students will perforce endure. It may be argued that the suspense and the uncertainty are unavoidable in a situation where the issue of OBC reservation has not received full legal sanction. However, tied with the reservations issue is also the autonomy of the management institutes to take independent decisions on admissions and fees. The HRD ministry's argument that the government's case before the Supreme Court would be weakened if the IIMs finalised admissions without the OBC quota is itself weak. Its second argument that "responsible people running the elite institutions will act in national interest" prejudges the Court's final word on the constitutionalities and legalities of quota allotments. The brighter side of the picture is that only a further wait of two days will be there since the matter will be heard on Monday. However, there is no saying what orders the court will pass, and whether they will be such as to enable the IIMs to release the final list of candidates well before the terms commence. If the orders necessitate a prolongation of the contention, with further hearings scheduled, then the students may be forced to seek admissions in other business schools in order to save a year. The majority of the students who have already been shortlisted rightly feel that the entire reservation issue has not been handled well either by the IIMs or by the HRD ministry.
