IIM-Calcutta to go ahead and implement quota: SC

RESERVATION ON: Friday's Supreme Court order has come as a relief for the UPA Government.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that IIM's can now go ahead and implement OBC quotas, but admissions to reserved seats will be provisional. The judgement came after SC overturned the stay by the Calcutta High Court.

With the Supreme Court has cleared the decks for admissions to IIMs, the Government's fears of protestors having their way has been dispelled.

Several petitions questioning OBC intake in postgraduate courses filed in different High Courts will now be clubbed together and heard by the Supreme Court.

For the moment, IIM Calcutta has been asked to go ahead with provisional admissions for OBC students.

IIM-C Director Admissions, Subroto Mitra says, "As soon as we get clarification from the ministry, we will send out offers to OBC candidates."

HRD Minister, Arjun Singh added, "Now that the Calcutta High Court order has been stayed, the OBC candidates will get admissions."

Even in the judgement by the Supreme Court on April 10, there were no restrictions for PG students and now that the Calcutta High Court order has been stayed, the seemingly last hurdle has been cleared.

But all is not over. There is still confusion over OBC reservations.

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court approved the Government policy in the matter, but the rider they put in is that graduation should be the yardstick for measuring backwardness.

Youth For Equality advocate, M L Lahoti said, "We had pointed out to Supreme Court that out of five judges, three judges had had clearly stated that after graduation, there is no backwardness and there is no educational reservation required for post-graduation students."

Friday's Supreme Court order has come as a relief not only for the OBC students but also for the Government.

However, the larger question — whether the graduation benchmark for identifying backward classes will apply to individual cases or to the community as a whole — still remains unresolved.

(With inputs from Anjita Roy Choudhary in Kolkata and Sumit Pande in New Delhi)