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The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted for final hearing on January 28 and 29 the petition filed by the West Bengal government challenging the Calcutta High Court decision to quash the Other Backward Class (OBC) classification of 77 communities.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih said it would hear the case on January 28 and 29. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the State of West Bengal, requested the bench that to decide the matter before the commencement of the next academic year. To this, Justice Gavai said that the matter would be decided before the court closes for summer vacations in May. Earlier, the top court had said that reservation cannot be on the basis of religion. The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Calcutta High Court's May 22, 2024 verdict that struck down the OBC status of several castes in West Bengal granted since 2010. Last year, the apex court had asked the West Bengal government to provide quantifiable data on social and economic backwardness of fresh castes it had included in the OBC list and their inadequate representation in public sector jobs. It had also asked the government to file an affidavit giving details of the consultations, if any, conducted by it and the state's backward classes panel before including 37 castes, mostly Muslim groups, in the OBC list. The High Court had struck down the OBC status of several castes in West Bengal holding as illegal the reservation for them in public sector jobs and state-run educational institutions. "Religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion for declaring these communities as OBCs," the judgement stated. The High Court, in total, struck down 77 classes of reservation given between April, 2010 and September, 2010. It had also struck down 37 classes for reservation as OBC given under The West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012. "Selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backwards is an affront to the Muslim community as a whole," the High Court stated in its judgement. The High Court while deciding the petitions challenging the provisions of the state's reservation law of 2012 and reservations granted in 2010, had clarified that the services of citizens of the struck-down classes, who were already in service or had availed the benefit of reservation, or succeeded in any selection process of the state, would not be affected by the judgment. (ANI)
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