HC stays West Bengal’s move to add 140 new OBC groups till July 31. All actions under recent OBC notifications also halted temporarily.
Kolkata: On June 18, the Calcutta High Court has ordered a temporary stay on several recent government notifications related to reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in West Bengal.
These notifications, issued between May 8 and June 13, 2024, were meant to add 140 sub-categories to the existing OBC-A and OBC-B lists. However, the court has now said that these notifications will not be implemented at least until July 31, 2024.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, consisting of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha, passed this interim order.
The judges said,
“executive notifications between May 8 and June 13 with regard to Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories made by the state government will not be given effect to till that date.”
This means that the government cannot move forward with these changes until the court gives further directions.
The High Court also clarified that
“all consequential acts thereof will also remain stayed till July 31.”
This means that any action taken on the basis of these notifications—like giving jobs or admissions under the new categories—must also be paused.
In the meantime, the court has asked all parties involved to file their official responses.
“All the parties in the matter were directed by the court to file their affidavits in the meantime on their contentions with regard to the challenge over new benchmark surveys for the purpose of inclusion under OBC categories in a PIL and the notifications.”
This relates to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the way the government has added new groups to the OBC list, reportedly based on fresh surveys.
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According to the state government, these notifications included
“49 subsections under the OBC-A and 91 under the OBC-B categories.”
The government has argued that this move was aimed at giving benefits to more communities. As per the classification,
“more backward sections of people have been included under OBC-A, the less backward people come under OBC-B.”
In the latest development in the case titled Amal Chandra Das v The State of West Bengal and Ors, the Calcutta High Court reiterated its position and “stayed the implementation of West Bengal government’s new list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).” The Bench clarified that “the interim stay will remain in effect till July 31, when the case will be heard next, and no step can be taken by the State based on the list.”
The Mamata Banerjee-led government had recently tabled the revised OBC-A and OBC-B lists in the West Bengal Assembly on June 10, adding 76 new groups, taking the total number to 140. According to reports, 80 of these communities are Muslim.
This comes after the Calcutta High Court had previously cancelled the state’s older OBC list, which included 113 sub-groups, noting that 77 of them were stated to be belonging to the Muslim community. The High Court had declared that
“reservations to vacancies in services and posts in the state are illegal.”
That decision is currently under challenge before the Supreme Court, and the matter is still pending.
The adoption of the new list has also led to sharp political reactions in the state. While the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of indulging in appeasement politics, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has strongly defended the move, stating that
“the list has been prepared based solely on backwardness of the communities.”
With this new interim stay, the High Court has made it clear that any further implementation of the OBC-related decisions taken between May and June this year will remain on hold.
The situation will now be reviewed again after July 31, once all parties have submitted their arguments and the court has had time to consider them.
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