A year on, many IIMs yet to submit reservation rosters

Nearly a year after the education ministry asked Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to prepare and submit reservation rosters for faculty and non-teaching positions, several premier management institutes were still in the process of completing the exercise, according to official documents accessed by HT.

At the first Coordination Forum of IIMs meeting in September 2025, officials of IIMs flagged “inherent challenges” in implementing the reservation roster, saying it was “difficult to find suitable candidates” with the required PhD in the relevant field. By the second meeting on May 14, 2026, the ministry said category-wise sanctioned-position details were still awaited from eight IIMs — Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Ranchi, Rohtak, Udaipur and Mumbai — while draft rosters were pending from 10, including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Raipur, Ranchi, Rohtak, Udaipur, Nagpur and Sambalpur. This was despite the ministry noting that such information is “frequently sought in Parliament, often five to six times in each session.”

There are 22 IIMs in the country. Under the Indian Institute of Management Act, 2017, the forum is an “advisory body”, unlike the IIT Council, whose decisions are binding on IITs. The education ministry circulated the minutes to IIMs on June 17, and HT obtained them through a Right to Information (RTI) application on September 15.

The issue of reservation policies’ implementation had first been discussed at the forum’s September 23, 2025 meeting, when the ministry asked all IIMs to prepare their rosters and share them with the ministry’s nodal officer.

The May 2026 minutes record that ministry officials pointed out that several IIMs are yet to share category-wise sanctioned-position details while proposing “mandatory structured training” for IIM liaison officers responsible for the reservation implementation. In the meeting, then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan also urged the directors and chairpersons of IIMs to “strengthen compliance in line with constitutional reservation provisions” and initiate the process at the newly established IIM Guwahati, located in a tribal-dominated region.

The forum discussed using post-doctoral fellowships as a way of expanding the pool of eligible candidates. “Potential candidates may be identified and initially encouraged to join the Institute as Post Doctoral Fellow (PDF), so that they can be groomed during the period of fellowship as faculty,” the minutes said. The approach, according to the document, could help “create a larger candidate pool to work as future faculty”.

Members also suggested that candidates from reserved categories at newer IIMs could be supported through training and scholarships during the period before they become qualified faculty. The government, the minutes recorded, could provide funds for post-doctoral fellows.

The IIM forum also discussed faculty mobility between institutes. The minutes said newer IIMs faced a shortage of experienced and senior faculty while older institutes had a relatively larger pool. It suggested that IIMs collectively evolve a policy allowing newer institutes to temporarily engage senior faculty from older IIMs to strengthen academic delivery.

Data obtained through RTI applications by Kiran Kumar Gowd, president of the All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA), provides a separate indication of the extent of vacancies in reserved faculty positions. Responses from nine IIMs — Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Amritsar, Jammu, Raipur, Sambalpur, Sirmaur and Visakhapatnam — showed that 58.6% of sanctioned OBC faculty positions, 55.9% of SC positions, 79.6% of ST positions and 77.6% of EWS positions were vacant.

By comparison, vacancy in the general category was 13.6%. Taken together, the nine institutes reported sanctioned faculty strength of 472 in the general category, 186 for OBCs, 102 for SCs, 49 for STs and 58 for EWS.

The pattern was visible across several institutes. All sanctioned ST faculty positions were vacant at IIM Lucknow, IIM Raipur and IIM Sambalpur, while all sanctioned EWS positions were vacant at IIM Amritsar, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, IIM Sambalpur and IIM Sirmaur. The sanctioned strength for SC faculty was below 20 at each of the nine institutes, meaning small changes in the number of vacant positions can substantially alter the vacancy percentage.

IIM Mumbai, which was among the institutes yet to submit its category-wise sanctioned position details to the ministry by the May meeting, separately reported high vacancies in reserved categories in its RTI response. It said 77.1% of OBC, 84% of SC and 78% of ST sanctioned faculty positions were vacant, while all sanctioned EWS positions were vacant.

There were exceptions in the general category as well. IIM Jammu had 51% of its sanctioned general-category faculty positions vacant, while IIM Calcutta and IIM Sambalpur reported faculty strength above their sanctioned general-category numbers. The RTI responses attributed this to the institutes’ flexi-cadre arrangements, under which they can recruit beyond sanctioned strength depending on requirements.

Gowd said the data pointed to gaps in implementation of reservation policies across premier institutions. “When we examine the RTI data from 2024 and 2026 concerning IITs and IIMs, one thing becomes increasingly evident: there are serious gaps in the implementation of reservation policies,” he said. He added that greater representation of SC, ST and OBC faculty was necessary alongside stronger institutional mechanisms to address discrimination.

The problem is not limited to the preparation of rosters. In response to a February 2025 ministry request seeking details of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates found “Not Found Suitable” for teaching posts over the previous decade, IIM Indore reported that of 120 SC applications received between December 2019 and January 2025, 99 were “Not Found Suitable,” 20 candidates were found suitable and interviews were being scheduled, while only one selected candidate rejected the offer. Of 20 ST applicants, 15 were found unsuitable and five were found suitable for interviews.

A CAG audit of IIM Rohtak has also highlighted weaknesses in maintaining reservation records. The audit, tabled in Parliament on August 12, 2026, examined records of 82 faculty members who served the institute between March 2016 and March 2024 and found that IIM Rohtak did not maintain social-category-wise data or rosters for faculty recruitment. As a result, posts could not be earmarked for reserved categories when advertisements were issued, the audit said. The CAG recommended that the institute maintain accurate category-wise faculty records and fill backlog vacancies through time-bound special recruitment drives.

IIM directors, meanwhile, have pointed to the availability of qualified candidates as a key challenge. IIM Indore director Prof Himanshu Rai said the “greater challenge is faculty recruitment” and that the pipeline of candidates with PhDs in management or related fields from strong institutions remains small. “The long-term solution involved encouraging more students from under-represented categories to pursue doctoral studies and expanding post-doctoral training, mentoring and faculty-development programmes,” he said.

IIM Lucknow director Prof M.P. Gupta said reservation policies had to be implemented and that institutes made efforts to fill reserved positions, but added that vacancies could persist when suitable candidates were not available. “There is no benefit to any institution in keeping faculty positions vacant,” he said, adding that the institute actively searched for candidates and supported talent.