Calcutta high court orders stay on Bengal govt's revised OBC list notification
The court observed that legal procedures and court directives were violated by the state.
Lawyer Bikram Bandopadhyay, who represented petitioners challenging the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government's June 10 notification, said the division bench of justices Rajasekhar Mantha and Tapabrata Chakraborty ordered the interim stay not only on the issuance of the notification but also on issuance of OBC certificates based on the new list.
'The bench raised several questions when we pointed out that a proper survey on economic conditions and other parameters of 140 communities cannot be done in one and a half months as claimed by the state,' Bandopadhyay told the media after the hearing.
During the hearing, justice Mantha criticised the state saying: 'You did half the work under the 2012 OBC Act and then reverted to the 1993 Act. Why is this inconsistency?'
The order, which was passed after back-to-back hearings since Monday, was not uploaded on the high court's website till late evening.
Petitions challenging the government notification were filed by three individuals and Atmadeep, a human rights organisation.
In May 2024, after hearing petitions filed by the same petitioners, the division bench of justices Rajasekhar Mantha and Tapabrata Chakraborty cancelled the OBC status awarded to 77 Muslim communities by the state since 2010. This prompted the government to suspend quota-based recruitments and college admissions and move the Supreme Court where the matter is still pending.
Of these 77 communities, 42 were earmarked for OBC status by the erstwhile Left Front government in 2010, a year before the Marxists were ousted by chief minister Mamata Banerjee's TMC.
The court barred the state from appointing people from these communities with immediate effect but said those who have joined service so far on the basis of OBC reservation will not be affected.
In the May 2024 order, a copy of which was seen by HT, the bench said: 'This Court is of the view that the selection of 77 classes of Muslims as Backward is an affront to the Muslim community as a whole. This Court's mind is not free from doubt that the said community has been treated as a commodity for political ends. This is clear from the chain of events that led to the classification of the 77 classes as OBCs and their inclusion to be treated as a vote bank.'
'Identification of the classes in the said community as OBCs for electoral gains would leave them at the mercy of the concerned political establishment and may defeat and deny other rights. Such reservation is therefore also an affront to democracy and the Constitution of India as a whole,' the order said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's West Bengal unit president Sukanta Majumdar welcomed Tuesday's order, saying 'it has exposed the TMC's efforts to appease Muslims through the backdoor.'
Defending the state, TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said: 'The survey on economic condition and other parameters was conducted following guidelines set by the court. It is a propaganda that a specific community is being benefitted.'
State government lawyers said the interim stay would be challenged at the Supreme Court immediately.
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