Lucknow, July 29: The Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIM-L) has filled 13 seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and physically challenged candidates with students from the ‘‘general’’ category for the MBA programme this year.

According to sources, other IIMs, especially the ones at the lower-end of B-school list, have also had to resort to such ‘‘pooling back’’, allegedly due lack of qualified students from the reserved categories.

‘‘What else could we do, leave the seats empty?’’ asked an official involved in the admissions this year at IIM-L, adding, ‘‘we sent out offers to join to all the candidates from these communities who managed the minimum marks in the Common Admission Test.’’

At IIM-L for example, only 35 students belonging to the SC category have been admitted this year. According to the guidelines issued by the Centre, 15 per cent of the seats must be reserved for them. With the total number of new students touching 255 this year, the number of SC students should be 38.

The situation is worse for the other two reserved categories. Against a requirment of 19 ST students, only 13 have been admitted. Among the physically challenged too, the IIM has only half the candidates required by the guidelines — 4 against 8. The institute’s director, Dr Devi Singh, did not confirm or deny the figures. ‘‘I do not know the exact situation right now... but I will find out the numbers,’’ he promised.

It’s not just IIM-L. IIM-Kozhikode also fell short by around five students in the reserved categories. The institute’s director, Dr Krishna Kumar, felt that it was better not to admit ‘‘undeserving students’’ than to let candidates in just for the sake of making up the numbers. ‘‘If we cannot manage to get qualified people even after lowering the bar on their scores, that does not mean we can go all the way down to zero,’’ he said.

The situation has left Dalit rights activists fuming. ‘‘Not only is this unethical, but also completely unconstitutional,’’ said Kancha Ilaiah, ‘‘and this calls for a petition at the SC-ST Commission.’’ The lack of transperancy has added to the ire. ‘‘What do you mean by saying you tried to relax the requirements, but still could not manage to find 300 SC and ST students. You are not even telling us how many students from these backgrounds applied, what were their scores, what was the extent of the concessions extended to them,’’ he sasaid.