Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the IIM fee-cut issue on Friday, the human resource development ministry has received a shot in the arm with IIM-Lucknow extending its support to the controversial move.

In a resolution passed last week, IIM-Lucknow has decided to implement the fee revision as the government had already agreed to meet the shortfall, if any, arising out of the fee reduction, sources said in New Delhi.

The IIM Controversy: Complete Coverage

The apex court on March 12 gave a week's time to the Centre to clarify its stand on the commitment not to interfere with the functioning of the prestigious business schools and to provide adequate funds in view of the drastic reduction of the admission fee from Rs 150,000 to Rs 30,000.

The issue would come up again on March 19.

The IIM-Lucknow said it functioned in accordance with the memorandum of association signed with the ministry and also complied with the norms of the Expenditure Reforms Commission.

Observing that the institute was striving hard to render world class services both in terms of academic excellence and infrastructure with its lean manpower structure, IIM- Lucknow said it was expanding its intake through Agri-business PGP from 2004/05.

It said the institute did not have any huge accumulations under its corpus and sought timely and regular flow of assistance.