IIM Ahmedabad cancels admission of students on submission of documents; HC issues notice to institute

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) on a plea filed by a student challenging cancellation of his admission to its two-year postgraduate program on technical grounds after completing three quarters. from his business school course.

Justice Aniruddha P Mayee issued the notice, returnable on October 21, to IIMA and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, from where the student had completed his 5-year integrated BTech plus MTech course in 2021. Ruling of the petitioner R Shri Vignesh receiving his degree certificates and mark sheets from IIT Madras on time due to administrative and procedural delays led IIMA to cancel his admission in September 2023 after he had completed the fourth quarter of the institute’s flagship programme.

The petitioner said that he joined IIT Madras in 2016 for its 5-year integrated BTech plus MTech course and completed it in June 2021. Subsequently, he got admission into IIMA in May 2022 after securing 98.66 percentile. in the Common Admission Test (CAT), said. Vignesh completed his first term with good marks in September 2022, but did not receive his mark sheets and degree certificates from IIT Madras before the deadline set by the IIMA as part of the admission process, according to the petition.

Therefore, he requested an extension of time from the IIMA which was granted, as informed by the petitioner to the HC. Meanwhile, the petitioner successfully completed two additional quarters. On July 28, 2023, during the fourth quarter of the PGP course, the petitioner received a letter from the IIMA, stating that his admission was to be treated as “invalid” as he could not submit the mandatory documents within the prescribed period. In its reply, it told IIMA that IIT Madras was not in a position to send its degree certificates and mark sheets due to administrative and procedural delays and therefore the petitioner was not at fault and sought further extension of the deadline. The petitioner’s request dated August 11, 2023 was considered and the IIMA granted him until September 13, 2023 to submit his documents. Vignesh also managed to finish his fourth trimester at that time, the statement said. The student’s counsel submitted that despite working diligently with IIT Madras, the petitioner was unable to obtain the necessary documents from IIT Madras due to its administrative and procedural delay. Through a communication dated September 14, 2023, his admission to the IIMA was invalidated due to lack of presentation of documents, the lawyer said. The lawyer said that thereafter the petitioner tried to obtain his documents from IIT Madras and upon receiving them in July 2024, he immediately approached IIMA seeking readmission to complete the course. The lawyer stated that his client was never at fault and cannot be blamed for the delay in submitting the necessary documents to the top business school.