Supreme Court upholds autonomous status of JBIMS, fresh allotment list released

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday upheld a previous Bombay high court (HC) order, reaffirming the autonomous status of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) for the academic year 2019-20. The state common entrance test (CET) cell on Tuesday released a fresh seat allotment list for admissions to the institute, as the admissions conducted as per the first seat allotment list released on July 17 stands cancelled, following the order.

“The Directorate of Technical Education and the state CET cell are hereby directed to conduct the admission process in accordance with the ranking of the students as per the merit list published by CET cell, by treating JBIMS as an autonomous department of the University of Mumbai,” said the order passed by SC bench of justices Indu Malhotra and Sanjiv Khanna. The bench added that the admission process should be carried out within a period of two weeks.

A revised schedule and separate lists for the state and all-India candidates was released by the CET cell on Tuesday evening. “In pursuant to the judgement given by the SC, all state and all India candidates who were allotted seats in Common Admission Process (CAP) round 1 and reported to the allotted institute to confirm admissions stands cancelled,” said a circular released by the state CET cell.

The issue first came into light in the first week of July when nine students from the state approached the Bombay high court about CET cell’s decision to consider JBIMS as a home institute (sans its autonomous status) which meant 70% of its seats went to students of the home university (University of Mumbai), whereas the remaining 30% seats were divided equally between students from other state universities and those outside Maharashtra.

These students demanded that the autonomous status of JBIMS continue in admissions as well, so admissions to the institute be conducted as per the power granted to autonomous institutes by the University Grants Commission (UGC) wherein 85% of the total seats go to students from across the state.

On July 25, the HC directed the state to rework MBA and MMS admissions by treating JBIMS as an autonomous institute. Following this, 39 management students, who were admitted at JBIMS under the 70% home-university quota, filed a plea in SC, arguing they risked losing their seats in an autonomous college if admissions are reworked.

“This decision will leave several students who had already secured admission, in the lurch. The SC has now requested the Bombay HC to look into issues regarding laws pertaining autonomy granting authority of MU and the University Grants Commission (UGC) as well as another query we raised questioning the rule where home universities get 70% seats in non-autonomous colleges,” said Satish Talekar, counsellor representing the students who originally approached Bombay HC.

First Published: Sep 04, 2019 00:27 IST