A public interest litigation was on Tuesday filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Union HRD ministry's decision to drastically reduce the fee structure of Indian Institutes of Management, alleging that it was a move to gain control over the professional institutions.

The PIL filed by advocate Sandeep Parekh and two IIM graduates -- Saiket Sengupta and Anish Mathew -- has requested the Apex Court to strike down the February 5 decision of the government to reduce the fee structure and stop encroachment of the government in the academic affairs of these prestigious management institutes.

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The ministry had decided to drastically reduce the fees for the post-graduate programmes in the IIMs to Rs 30,000 per annum from around Rs 150,000 per annum.

The ministry had said that this decision has been taken after considering the recent Supreme Court order and the recommendations of the U R Rao Review Committee which went into the issue.

The petitioners said the government had gradually reduced the subsidy given to IIMs from 1992 on the basis of the Curien Committee recommendations with a view to give them more autonomy.

The present move was taken without taking into account the cash inflow-outflow scenario of the institutions and without hearing the stakeholders of the society governing the IIMs, they alleged.