The West Bengal Assembly passed two Bills amending OBC reservation laws, revising the list of eligible communities and introducing a uniform 7% quota. The changes follow Calcutta High Court directions, with the revised framework covering 66 OBC classes instead of the earlier list.
The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Monday passed two Bills that amend laws introduced by the earlier Trinamool Congress (TMC) government relating to reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the state. The Bills namely the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes (Amendment) Bill, 2026 were introduced by Minister for Backward Classes Welfare Gourishankar Ghosh.
With the passage of these legislations, reservation benefits will now cover 66 OBC classes, as against the larger list that was previously in force. The Bills also align the OBC quota with a uniform 7%, replacing the earlier structure of 17% comprising 10% under Category A and 7% under Category B in accordance with the Calcutta High Court’s directions.
Under the revised list, 77 communities have been dropped, and officials said all 77 belong to the Muslim community. The list includes communities such as Muslim Nehariya, Muslim Haldar, Muslim Sanpui, Muslim Mali, Ghosi (Muslim), Muslim Darji/Ostagar/Idrisi, Muslim Rajmistri, Muslim Batiyara, Muslim Molla, Dhali (Muslim) and several others.
At the same time, some Muslim communities continue to be part of the new 66-member OBC list. These include Jolah (Ansari Momin), Fakir, Pahadia Muslim, Hajjam (Muslim), and Chowduli (Muslim). Officials claimed these groups were included based on surveys conducted prior to 2010.
Defending the Bills in the House, Ghosh said the government was implementing court directions and rejected the charge that the changes had any political intent.
“We have removed 113 classes included earlier without conducting any field survey, and retained 66 sub-classes, which were included following various surveys,”
He further added that the Backward Classes Commission would conduct fresh inquiries for any future claims of inclusion. Hesaid,
“The previous TMC government had bypassed the Commission, and that is why the High Court struck down the process,”
BJP MLA from Dum Dum, Arijit Bakshi, supported the Bills and accused the earlier TMC administration of expanding the OBC list to “appease the minority community” and secure votes, thereby depriving “genuinely backward sections.”
The debate witnessed an uncommon unity across TMC factions loyalists aligned with former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and rebels led by Ritabrata Banerjee though divisions continued to surface within the rebel group itself.
During voting, ISF MLA Nawsad Siddiqui objected to the voice vote and demanded a division, arguing that the Bills “should have been discussed before they were passed.” TMC MLAs Javed Khan and Sabina Yasmin joined the demand, and Speaker Rathindra Basu permitted it.
While most rebel TMC MLAs walked out, five Kajal Sheikh, Baharul Islam, Byron Biswas, Pannalal Halder and Tausifur Rahman stayed back, despite their faction’s position.
Mamata loyalists including Sobhandeb Chatterjee, Biman Banerjee, Kunal Ghosh, Alifa Ahmed and Pulak Roy remained and voted against the Bills. Ultimately, 186 members voted in favour and 17 against, including one from within the rebel TMC group.
The changes are rooted in a Calcutta High Court order dated May 2024, which struck down OBC status granted to 77 communities mostly those added between 2010 and 2012. The court described the inclusions as “illegal and unconstitutional.”
The bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha noted that the classification appeared intended to treat a community as a “vote bank.” The ruling led to cancellation of around 12 lakh OBC certificates issued after 2010, though certificates for people who had already obtained jobs under the quota were protected, while those issued before 2010 were kept valid.
Soon after the BJP formed the government in Bengal, it issued a notification on May 18, discontinuing the religion-linked categorisation and restoring the pre-2010 list of 66 OBC communities eligible for a 7% quota. The Assembly has now formalised that adjustment through legislation.
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