Notwithstanding the Calcutta High Court's staying the implementation of reservation, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta on Thursday held its scheduled interview for candidates from the Other Backward Classes for post-graduate courses.
The IIM-C authorities, however, said that by holding the interview, the institute has not violated the high court order as it was not operationalising the reservation clause by admitting students from the OBC quota.
"We will wait for the court's final order before deciding on the admission of the candidates," said Dinesh Verma, chief administrative officer of the IIM-C.
Verma said that because of the court order, IIM-C took a declaration from all candidates who appeared for the interview, that the selection process would depend on the final outcome of the court case.
Twenty candidates appeared for the interview for nine seats, which the IIM-C reserved for OBCs.
"We have received a letter from the lawyer of the petitioner but not a copy of the court order," he said.
"According to the letter, the high court order has stayed the operation of the reservation clause and we will abide by the interim order by not going for final selection of the candidates or admitting them to the institute," Verma said.
Justice Maharaj Sinha of Calcutta High Court had on Wednesday stayed a memorandum by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry that granted reservation for OBCs in post graduate courses and also stayed the admission process, of which interview is a part, of IIM-Calcutta for OBC candidates for its post-graduate courses.
Sayan Guha, a B-Tech student, had filed the petition challenging the HRD ministry's order and also the scheduled interview and reservation clause of the IIM prospectus.
Guha's counsels Kishore Dutta and Nilava Bandopadhyay submitted before the court on Wednesday that the order and the subsequent reservation clause were in violation of the April 10 Supreme Court order on reservation of OBCs that had also set a yardstick for such quotas and defined the creamy layer that would be out of the purview of reservation.
They claimed while the apex court had directed that graduates would not be considered for reservation, the HRD Ministry had, in violation of that, passed an office memo to the effect that OBC students would get reservation in post-graduate courses.
