IIT Bombay Denied 80 Seats To SC, ST & OBCs, Admitted 95 Additional General Category Students: RTI Report

The Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), a student collective body which respond to issues impacting students within and outside the IIT Bombay has accused the Premiere Institute of denying 80 seats to SC, ST, and OBC students while admitting an additional 95 general category students for the PhD admissions in 2023, according to the media reports.

The APPSC alleges that IIT Bombay has violated the reservation norms in PhD admissions, despite claiming to implement them. Last year, the APPSC reported that five departments in IIT Bombay had not admitted a single ST candidate in the last 8 years.

According to the data received via RTI, 20 departments have not admitted any ST students, 11 departments did not grant admission to any SC student, and 5 departments have no OBC students this year.

The APPSC has raised concerns, especially regarding the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), which has not admitted ST students in the last 9 years.

In a series of tweet on X, (formerly Twitter), APPSC accused, "Despite claiming that they are implementing it, @iitbombay has again violated reservation norms in PhD admissions this year. They denied the seats of 80 SC ST OBC students and gave it to savarnas. Some departments did not take a single Bahujan student."

The group further says, "Our RTI data shows that there were more than enough students who applied from each category who cleared the written test and attended the interview. Still the savarna dominated faculties denied them their rightful seats. We need to hold these institutes accountable."

The RTI reply indicates that in the PhD admissions 2023 only 9% of SC seats and 3% of ST seats were filled, despite a substantial number of applicants from the unreserved categories. The data revealed that out of the available seats, SC and ST admissions remained disproportionately low compared to general category admissions.

The APPSC's report indicates that there were a sufficient number of students from each category who cleared the written test and attended interviews, yet seats reserved for marginalized categories remained unfilled. The Study Circle emphasizes the need to hold institutes accountable for such discrepancies.

After the tragic death of Darshan Solanki by suicide this year, the Institute on July 29th had issued an anti-discrimination guideline.