After putting the admission process on hold, the Indian Institutes of Management have begun the exercise to sift creamy layer among OBC by asking candidates belonging to the category to give details of their status with regard to 'creamy layer' in keeping with the Supreme Court directive.

The move by the IIMs comes in the wake of the HRD Ministry's directive last Sunday to all centrally-funded elite educational institutions, including IIMs and IITs, to implement the OBC reservation from this year sans creamy layer.

In a communication to applicants, IIM-Ahmedabad asked them to send in two weeks official certificates from the competent authority stating whether they belonged to the non-creamy OBC category.

It also enclosed proformas of the application for obtaining non-creamy layer OBC certificate and certificate by the competent authority.

IIM-Bangalore has also written to all OBC candidates who were interviewed to furnish details of their status.

However, it said OBC candidates who made it to the general category merit list would be offered admission regardless of their 'creamy layer' status.

The IIMs have put on hold their admission process seeking a communication from the Ministry after the Supreme Court verdict on April 10 upholding the 27 per cent reservation excluding the creamy layer.

"Each Central Educational Institution shall ensure that from among candidates belonging to OBCs applying for admission against the seats reserved for OBC category, information is collected from the candidates for exercising due diligence, so that no candidate belonging to the creamy layer is given the benefit of reservation for the OBCs," the Ministry had said.

The IITs have already decided to implement the OBC quota in three years time beginning in 2008-09 by reserving nine per cent every year.