Doctors' Association for Social Equality

Times news
MUMBAI: The supreme court may have asked the Centre to review its quota implementation in centrally-run institutes, but the HRD ministry is clearly in no mood to put off the decision this year.

To pave the way for a smooth implementation of OBC quotas in this academic session itself, the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) asked candidates at the joint entrance exam on Sunday to mention if they were from the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes or other backward classes (OBCs).

The attendance sheet passed around before the exam required aspirants to mention if they belonged to the general category or any of the other three.

Usually, the IITs ask only SC/ST students to list their caste category on the attendance sheet. The institutes then releases separate merit lists for SC, ST and physically challenged students.

The decision to mention the OBC category on the attendance sheet was finalised after a review ahead of this year's entrance exam.

After the supreme court's stay on the implementation of the OBC quota, the IITs were unsure on how to proceed for Sunday's joint entrance exam (JEE).

With the six Indian Institutes of Management receiving last-minute faxes to freeze admissions till further notice on Friday, sources in IIT-Chennai said they didn't want to take any chances with data on OBC candidates