New Delhi, June 14 : A total of 325 candidates belonging to OBC minorities were shortlisted this year by the IITs and other centrally-funded educational institutions under the Centre's 4.5 per cent sub-quota under OBC, but they may lose their seats because of Supreme Court's refusal to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court's order.
The IITs have now put on hold the minorities sub-quota following the Supreme Court order, says a Times of India report.
Students in this category who had already been counseled are likely to lose their choice of course for the IIT.
IIT-JEE organizing committee chairman Prof G B Reddy said, "The minority quota will not be implemented this year but all the students who have been shortlisted will be accommodated in the OBC quota list. The first list for allocation of seats will be released on Thursday.''
There are a total of 9,647 seats in different IITs including 4,722 for the general category students. A total 17,464 candidates were shortlisted for counseling this year.
Under the proposed sub-quota, 441 seats were reserved for minorities, but only 325 candidates were shortlisted.
Former member secretary to the National Commission for Backward Classes P S Krishnan denied that the sub-quota was worked out for religious considerations.
He said, "The sub-quota from the OBC quota is not based on religion. It seeks to reserve seats for those from a religion or caste who are socially and educationally backward as well."
Krishnan said an indicator of the backwardness within the minority communities was the fact that despite reservation there were not enough deserving candidates who made it to IIT.
He referred to the Sachar Committee report that has documented the social and educational backwardness of Muslims in India in extensive details.
For instance, while the Muslim population forms 13.4%of the total population, it accounts for only 6.3% of graduates.
The counselling for 15 IITs, Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU) and the Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad was on till June 10 with the first list being announced on Thursday.
The counselling website had been opened for the shortlisted candidates from May 18, giving them a chance to opt the courses of their choice. Online counselling ended on June 10.
The first round of seat allotment will be intimated online through the counselling website on June 14. Seats not accepted in the first round will be allotted on AIR (All India Ranking) basis.
The second round of allotment will be done on June 25.
The final round of allotment will be done on July 6. This year a total of 4,79,651 candidates had appeared in both the papers of IIT-JEE, conducted on April 8.
Out of the total number of candidates, 24,112 have secured ranks in various categories and 17,462 had been shortlisted for counselling for admission to 9,647 seats in 15 IITs, IT-BHU and ISM-Dhanbad.
Defending the sub-quota, officials cited the Mandal Commission which placed backward Hindus to form 43.7% of the population.
At that time, the Hindu population was 83.84% of India. So, 43.70% in 83.84% is same as 52 out of 100.
Therefore, the commission applied a rule of the thumb and assumed that the percentage of BCs among non-Hindus would also be 52% of the population of minorities.
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