IIT Kanpur defies Kapil Sibal, to have own exam from 2013

New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur on Friday rejected Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal's 'one nation, one test' proposal and has decided to conduct its own entrance test for undergraduate programmes from 2013. The decision was taken at a meeting of the institute's 210-member senate.

Upset with no action on their demand to recall the decision on a common engineering entrance test, IIT Kanpur has gone on a warpath.

IIT Kanpur Professor AK Chaturvedi said, "Hopes of lakhs of students each year rest on these exams. So the government shouldn't take it lightly. The decision on JEE should be taken after proper research and figures are taken into account."

Terming it as a very important development, IIT-Delhi alumni president Somnath Bharti said "other senates are likely to follow the suit".

The Senate of IIT Kanpur said that the recent IIT Council proposal on admissions to IITs is "academically and methodically unsound and in violation of the Institutes of Technology Act (1961) and IIT Kanpur Ordinances (Ordinance 3.2 (Admissions)".

"....the Senate resolves that IIT Kanpur will conduct the entrance examination for admissions to its undergraduate programmes in 2013," it said.

The decision came days after government rejected criticism of the decision to have a common IIT-JEE examination from 2013.

Sibal had claimed that it was approved without dissent at the IIT Council meeting and had the backing of the senates of four of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology.

He had maintained that he had categorically stated at the IIT council meeting that if "there is a single dissent" he will not go ahead with the proposal.

"The council consists of the IITs, the IIITs and the NITs. There was not a single dissent. It was unanimously adopted. Therefore, I went forward," the Minister had said.

Last month, Sibal had announced that from 2013, aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit under new a format of common entrance test which will also take plus two board results into consideration.

With Additional Inputs from Agencies

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