The IIM Alumni Association today filed a petition in Supreme Court, contesting the “arm-twisting” adopted by the HRD Ministry in getting the Centre’s quota policy implemented at institutes of excellence.

The plea seeks a direction from the court to the government not to implement reservation in higher educational institutes like IITs and IIMs. The alumni group argues that according to Section 4 (B) of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2007 itself, quotas would not apply to the institutes of excellence specified in the Act. “This should have been reason enough to keep the IITs and IIMs out of the purview of the present statute,” it said in the petition.

The petition was mentioned in the court today by senior advocate Harish Salve during the arguments on the Centre’s application for vacation of stay on 27 per cent OBC reservations. The plea is likely to come up for hearing soon.

Calling the “caste-based” reservation policy unconstitutional, the association also pointed out the problems of implementing reservation in higher educational institutes.

It says the quality of education at IIMs will be affected once reservation is implemented. “Any compromise made in the process, either in lowering eligibility standards or in reckless expansion of capacity without expansion of faculty, will undoubtedly lower standards of the output.”