New Delhi: The government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against a Calcutta High Court order that has suspended the quota for other backward classes (OBC) students at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C).

Appearing for the government, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati apprised the bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan of the situation following the Calcutta High Court stay on Wednesday on the OBC quota, and pleaded for an early hearing of the government's petition against it.

The bench, which also included Justice R V Raveendran and Justice M K Sharma, allowed the law officer's plea and said it would hear the matter on Friday.

On a petition by a general category IIM-C aspirant, Sayan Guha, Justice Maharaj Sinha of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday suspended the admission and interview schedule for the institute, slated for Friday.

Guha in his petition contended that the proposed admission of backward category students in IIM-C without weeding out the 'creamy layer' or the elite among them was in violation of the apex court's April 10 ruling. The apex court had allowed reservations in admissions only for non-elite sections of the OBC students.

On this plea, the High Court suspended till June 9 the official order of the Human Resource Development Ministry that gave a go-ahead to all centrally funded institutes of higher education, including the IIMs and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), for reserving 27 per cent seats for OBC candidates.

Source : IANS