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NEW DELHI: Fifty-seven of the 63 students who failed to secure the prescribed minimum grade in six IITs during 2014-15 session belonged to the reserved category, Lok Sabha was informed today.

"The IITs have a rigorous academic system that prescribes minimum grades to be obtained by the students for continuation in the IIT system. During the year 2014-15, a total of 63 students in undergraduate courses have failed to secure the prescribed minimum grade in 6 IITs," Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in a written reply. Out of the failed students 8 were from General category, 9 from OBC, 16 and 30 from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) category respectively.

The OBCs, SC and ST students constituted a whopping 87.3 per cent of those who failed to make the cut. The minister's response came to a question about how many students had been expelled from prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology on the ground of their performance.

In an unprecedented action by any IIT, the institute at Roorkee had in July this year expelled 73 students whose performance was not up to the mark after their first-year BTech programme. A group of 64 students had moved Uttarkhand High Court against the decision, but the court had upheld the institute's decision.

However, the institute reinstated the students in August this year as a "one-time measure" and said they will be on an academic probation throughout the year and have been re-admitted on strict conditions.

"The IIT Council has discussed the matter and implemented a system called Peer group Assisted Learning (PAL) to handhold students who are socially and educationally backward," she added.