The Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have approached the government to seek an exemption from reservations for faculty roles for the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
They requested the Ministry of Human Resources and Development to add them to the list of "Institutions of Excellence" that is mentioned in the Schedule to the Central Educational Institutions Act 2019.
Indian Express quoted a source saying, “The institutes have argued that their recruitment process is fair and that they are trying to employ candidates from disadvantaged sections through the same process. But reservation may not be the way to go since they are competing globally.”
This comes in the wake of a directive issued by the government last month to provide reservations in faculty role for SCs, STs, OBC and EWS applicants.
As of now, they do not have any reservations for these categories. In past, on multiple occassions they have cited a letter issued by Department of Personnel and Training, 1970 stating scientific and technical posts are exempt from the reservation.
However, Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) have implemented the reservation for assistant professor level in technology subjects since 2008.
