IIM seat aspirants to move Supreme Court over selection test

The students alleged that IIMs kept their selection criteria “hidden” and, after the results of CAT 2010, it was learnt that they will also take into consideration the marks secured by the candidates in their Class X and XII apart from the scores secured by them in the common admission test.

“About half of us secured over 99 percentile in the CAT (in the top 1 per cent of CAT takers) and the rest secured between 98 and 99 percentiles, but have received almost no calls from the IIMs for their second round of admissions,” one of the students, Dipesh Kaien, who secured 99.27 per cent in CAT 2010, said.

“A group of about 60 students has decided to move court on the issue. We will challenge the admission crieteria adopted by IIMs in court,” he said.

A writ petition in this regard would be filed in the Supreme Court.Another student, Palash Agrawal, who claimed to have secured 99.23 per cent in CAT, said that the IIMs are autonomous institutions and have every right to set their own selection criteria—including giving weightage to class X and XII marks as they deem fit.

“But Class X,  XII and UG (under graduate) marks are independent of one’s CAT performance, and the cut-offs in these marks that each IIM plans to use should have been disclosed up front before the exam,” he contended.

“None of us would have even applied for the test, knowing that we did not stand a chance even if we secured a perfect 100 percentile. This would have saved us a year, our money, preparation time, and sacrifices we unknowingly have made for something we did not have a chance for in any case,” he rued. He was employed as project manager in company here but left the job “just for appearing in CAT”.

Three of the IIMs – Rohtak, Shillong and Trichy – have not even looked at CAT scores unless students obtained a cut-off mark in their UG, Class X and Class XII performances, the students charged.

IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode have calculated the score for each candidate giving specific weightages, they added.“Our grievance is simple. Why the IIMs hid these criteria till the CAT results were out,” Dipesh asked.