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The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have been facing a number of RTI queries, more so since the
CAT’s switch to the online version ran into trouble last year. With thousands of students affected, RTIs were
filed with the IIMs on the issue. IIM-Ahmedabad, incidentally, was the coordinating institute for CAT 2009
along with IIM-Bangalore. CAT apart, a number of RTIs are being filed by students who failed to get an
interview call, and others who wanted the CAT scores to be declared. The Central Information Commission
(CIC) had also recommended that CAT scores be disclosed.
Information — incidentally also sought by The Indian Express under RTI — has shown how keenly
IIM-Ahmedabad feels the heat with an increasing number of RTI applications before it. The IIM feels that not
only is the RTI being used by its own employees to publicly air their grievances but also that several queries
could compromise with the commercial and operational interests of the institute, both nationally and
internationally.
The minutes of the BoG meetings accessed by this newspaper under the RTI Act show that in the meeting
dated March 27, 2010, under the section “matters pertaining to the institute”, it was noted that the “pressure
of RTI applications continues from within as well as outside the institute”. This “pressure” disturbed the
institute so much that the issue was on the agenda of its Board of Governors’ meeting twice in a row. In the
next BoG meeting, held on May 20, 2010, the “Board expressed concern on the increasing request received
by the institute under the RTI Act, 2005. Many of the requests appeared to be prompted by vested
interests. Some of the information collected was being quoted out of context in the media. This could cause
avoidable harm to the institute. It was decided that the director should use his own discretion in providing
information on RTI queries, and the Board would support his decision”.
The IIM had even sought legal opinion on the possibility of seeking exemption from the RTI in 2006 from K S
Nanavati as well as a chartered accountant. While Nanavati had backed IIM-Ahmedabad’s exemption
argument, CA Nayan Verma had not. The IIM had forwarded the opinions to the Human Resource
Development Ministry last year in a last-ditch effort, failing which there was a call for greater scrutiny.
Professor B H Jajoo, Dean of administration and institute programmes at the IIM, said there were three
main reasons prompting the move to streamline the RTI process. “The most important reason is that many
foreign institutes and Indian and foreign entrepreneurs wishing to set up private business schools have
applied for information using the RTI. These applicants ask for everything, including course material, course
costing, budgets and even the size of the classrooms, as specific as how many square feet is a classroom in
IIM-A. Since we are a publicly funded institute we have to have the RTI in place, but this kind of information
is not in the interest of any public institution of repute. It will a compromise with our competitiveness,” he
said.
The second reason is that as IIM-A staff are conventionally not familiar with the working of legislation and
government regulations like the RTI Act, they end up spending a lot of time compiling information for the RTI
replies.
“We have wasted tremendous man-hours compiling data to answer queries specifically, which is not required
under the Act. The CIC has also agreed with us on this. Now, we provide the necessary documents but
leave the task of sorting out with the applicants,” he said.
The third reason is that “employees are misusing the RTI to settle personal grievances,” he said, adding that
the current PIO, K S Joshi, “has been harassed many times”. “There are other channels through which
employees can register their grievances, but many choose to misuse the RTI,” he added.
He said the BoG’s decision does not mean that the PIO or the Appellate Authority have been relieved of their
duties, but that the Director is actively involved in the way applicants are handled and answered.