Fee cut: IIMs to meet on June 6

Buoyed by the response of the new government at the Centre, the directors of all six Indian Institutes of Managements would meet in Ahmedabad on Sunday to find a solution to the autonomy and the fee-structure issues.

"We will go into the meeting with a positive frame of mind to bring a solution to the issue," IIM-A Director Bakul Dholakia told PTI.

• The IIM Controversy: Complete Coverage

Tomorrow's meeting follows a detailed interaction of the directors of the management institutes last week with Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, who put the ball in the court of the IIMs, on deciding the fee which was slashed from Rs 150,000 lakh to Rs 30,000 by former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.

Singh had asked the IIMs to decide on the fee structure and inform the government on June 8.

The Shunglu committee, which went into the financial needs of IIMs, is also understood to have backed the fee reduction mooted by Joshi.

The one-man committee of former Comptroller and Auditor General V K Shunglu, appointed by Joshi, was believed to have said that IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata could do without charging any fee at all and that these IIMs could do very well with the grant provided by the government.

Things were further complicated after a senior official in the ministry reportedly "threatened" the institutes with dire consequences at a meeting if they went to the court over the issue.

The fee-cut and autonomy matters are pending before the Supreme Court after some IIM alumni members filed a PIL challenging the fee-cut and autonomy issues.