Supreme Court stays HC order pausing West Bengal govt's OBC quota notification
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai and justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria expressed surprise over the June 17 order staying a June 10 classification notification in the absence of legislation. It said that a nine-judge Supreme Court bench in the Indira Sawhney case (1992) allowed the executive to identify socially and educationally backward classes for reservation through executive notification.
The observation came in the context of the high court observation that the state acted with 'undue haste' through an 'executive fiat' without placing the matter before the legislature. 'We will stay the order…It is very surprising to read the reasoning given by the high court. Prima facie, we feel the order is erroneous,' the bench said.
The bench, which was initially inclined to return the matter to the high court by ordering status quo, posted the matter for hearing after two weeks. The lawyers, appearing in the case, insisted that the Supreme Court hear and decide the matter.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the West Bengal government that challenged the June 17 order, said the state is facing contempt proceedings as it has to fill 900,000 posts based on the June 10 notification.
Three individuals and an organisation challenged the notification, arguing that the state had not ascertained the economic conditions for extending the reservation and that it was not backed by law.
A high court bench of justices Rajasekhar Mantha and Tapabrata Chakraborty passed an interim direction staying the June 10 notification until July 31.
Senior advocates Ranjit Kumar and Guru Krishnakumar, who appeared for the petitioners in the high court, told the Supreme Court about a similar exercise to classify 77 castes as OBCs, mostly Muslims, since 2010. The high court struck down that exercise in May last year. The state appealed, but the Supreme Court refused to interfere.
In March, the state government withdrew its appeal, saying a revised exercise was being conducted. Kumar and Krishnakumar argued that one and a half months is too short for ascertaining the eligibility of the communities to be added as OBCs on the state list.
Krishnakumar pointed out that the law mandates the state to consult the backward class panel and carry out an extensive survey of the communities intended to be added to the OBC list. Sibal cited the Constitution's Article 342A(3) and said states are entitled to prepare and maintain the OBC list.
The high court order said prima facie it appears the government was proceeding in hot haste and attempting to bring in the self-same classes and re-introduce the percentage of reservation, which had been struck down, by executive orders and not in exercise of the state's legislative functions.
The May 2024 high court order struck down the state's decision, relating to 77 communities, citing the same reasoning that the legislature, and not the executive, can carry out this exercise.
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