West Bengal OBC Reservations| Supreme Court To Hear Challenge Against HC Order Quashing 77 OBC Classifications On Sep 2

The Supreme Court has adjourned to Monday (September 2) the hearing of the challenge to Calcutta High Court's order quashing classification of 77 communities as Other Backward Classes (OBC) by West Bengal Government. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the State of West Bengal requested time for filling its reply to certain documents tendered by the respondents. The CJI DY Chandrachud-led bench, comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra agreed to relist the matter for the next Monday. Last week, the State had told the Court that it would seek a stay of the High Court's judgment as several persons are waiting for admissions and recruitments.The petition filed by the State of West Bengal is against the Calcutta High Court's judgment which quashed the classification of 77 communities as Other Backward Classes (OBC) given under the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012 and cancelled all Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010.Earlier, while issuing notice in the matter as well on the stay application, the Court had asked the State to file an affidavit explaining the process followed for the classification of 77 communities as OBCs : (1) the nature of the survey; (2) whether there was a lack of consultation with the backward classes commission in respect of any communities in the list of 77 communities designated as OBCs.Apart from this, the Court also asked whether any consultation was done by the State for the sub-classification of the OBCs and clarify the nature of the study relied upon.It was in May this year that the High Court delivered the verdict which has the potential to impact nearly 5 lakh OBC certificates issued after 2010. The High Court observed that the OBC classifications were made without proper study and adequate data.The Court clarified that those who had attained employment on the benefit of the act and were already in service because of such reservation would not be affected by the order.The Order Of The High CourtThe Court was adjudicating on a plea which challenged certain provisions of the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012, which made reservations in public offices for those belonging to the OBC category.In making observations on how the Commission acted improperly in connivance with the Chief Minister's mission to extend reservations, the Court opined:"The Commission and State acted in undue haste and with lightning speed in making recommendations for the classification of the 77 classes to make the public announcement of the then Chief Minister a reality. According to the petitioners, the Commission appeared to be in a tearing hurry to fulfil the wishes of the Chief Minister made in a political rally. No proper enquiry was conducted by the Commission inviting application for inclusion in the lists and even after purported preparation of the list, no notification was issued inviting objections in general from the people at large."Thus, the authorities have violated the constitutional provisions and had practiced protective discrimination in deviation to the constitutional norms. No data was disclosed on the basis of which it was ascertained that the concerned community is not adequately represented in the services under the Government of West Bengal. The said reports were never published and as such none could avail the opportunity to file any objection to the same, it added.The Court also observed that the recommendations for sub-classification of OBCs by the state were made upon bypassing the State commission, and that 41 out of the 42 classes that were recommended for reservation belonged to the Muslim community,The Court stated that the primary and sole consideration for the Commission had been to make religion-specific recommendations. To curtain and hide such religion-specific recommendations, the Commission has prepared the reports for the ostensible purpose of granting reservation to the backward classes to hide the real purpose behind such recommendations. The purpose was to grant a religion-specific reservation, it stated.The bench held that while the Commission purports to show by way of such reports, (which however has not been relied upon by the State and Commission before the Court), that it had complied with section 9 of the Act of 1993 read with article 16(4) of the Constitution of India. Case Details : THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ANR. Versus AMAL CHANDRA DAS Diary No. - 27287/2024

West Bengal OBC Reservations| Supreme Court To Hear Challenge Against HC Order Quashing 77 OBC Classifications On Sep 2

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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