Court stays OBC quota at IIM-Calcutta

The Calcutta High Court Wednesday stayed the quota for other backward classes (OBC) at the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) till June, putting brakes on interviews for OBC candidates scheduled at the institute Thursday.

A single-judge bench granted the stay hearing a writ petition filed by an IIM aspirant, Sayan Guha, challenging the human resource development ministry notification of April 20 giving the go-ahead for OBC reservation in centrally funded higher educational institutes including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and IIMs.

"The ministry's office memorandum has been stayed. That means the policy has been stayed till June 9," said Guha's lawyer Neelava Banerjee Wednesday.

"The ministry had earlier issued a directive to the Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) after the Supreme Court April 10 upheld the 27 percent reservation for OBCs excluding the 'creamy layer'.

"We told the high court that the subsequent reservation clause was in violation of the apex court order that had set a yardstick for such quotas and defined the 'creamy layer' that would be out of the purview of reservation," Banerjee said.