To hold fresh exercise to determine backward classes, Bengal govt tells SC
This story was originally published at 14:03 IST on 18 March 2025
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NEW DELHI – The West Bengal government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it would conduct a fresh exercise to determine who were backward in the state, and will conclude it in three months. The top court was hearing an appeal by the state government against the Calcutta High Court's order scrapping the Other Backward Classes status of several communities in West Bengal, granted since 2010. The top court will now hear the case in July.
On May 22, the high court had struck down several portions of the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012. "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," the high court had said.
The high court had said people from these groups who are already in service, have availed of reservation, or have otherwise succeeded in the selection processes of the state will not be affected by the order. The court also quashed the state's executive orders from Mar 5, 2010, to May 11, 2012, classifying several other groups as Other Backward Classes. All the directions will have a prospective effect, it had said.
As a result of the high court's order, approximately 500,000 other backward class certificates issued under the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other Than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012 were cancelled.
The high court was hearing a public interest litigation initiated by Amal Chandra Das, who said all OBC certificates given out after 2010 had bypassed the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act of 1993. Das had said those actually from backward classes were not given their due certificates. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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