New Delhi, Aug. 26: The Prime Minister today publicly assured the IIT Guwahati director that he would discuss with cabinet colleagues the premier tech schools’ controversial demand for exemption from faculty caste quotas.

This is the first time that a Prime Minister has hinted he is open to debate on the implementation of faculty quotas at premier educational institutions like the IITs.

Addressing students and faculty at IIT Guwahati today, Manmohan Singh — a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam — said he had taken note of “the point that Prof Gautam Barua (the institute’s director) has made with regard to the reservation issue.

“I take that with me and (will) bring it to the notice of my cabinet colleagues.”

Singh’s assurance came after Barua, at a meeting earlier in the day, expressed concerns that the quality of faculty could be affected if job reservations were enforced while recruiting teachers.

There is a 22.5 per cent quota for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs and another 27 per cent for the Other Backward Classes.

The Telegraph had, in its issue of December 6, 2007, revealed that the IITs were not following the Centre’s quota policy, claiming a waiver they had never been granted.

Responding to a Right to Information query, the IITs have now admitted they had not received any exemption order from the human resource development minister. Officials said such an order was necessary for the IITs to bypass the policy.

The institutes had at first cited an office memorandum (OM), claiming exemption. The OM, issued by the department of personnel and training, allows exemptions at scientific and technical institutions but clearly mentions that an order is required from the HRD minister.

The IITs also cited an almost identical OM, but this one too made it clear that the minister’s order was necessary.

On neither occasion was this exemption obtained from the then HRD minister.

Based on the report in this newspaper, the standing committee of the IIT Council — the highest recommendatory body for the institutes — suggested in February that faculty quotas must be implemented.

The HRD ministry then issued a fresh notification to the institutes, ordering them to implement reservations while recruiting teachers.

But the IITs have opposed the order. At a standing committee meeting on July 3, they formally sought exemption from the job quota policy.