Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the West Bengal government to explain the rationale behind designating 77 communities, predominantly Muslims, as Other Backward Classes (OBC). This move comes after the Calcutta High Court in May declared the classification process illegal, prompting the state to appeal the decision before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court has requested the West Bengal government to provide quantifiable data on the social and economic backwardness and the inadequate representation in public sector jobs of the castes included in the OBC list for quota benefits.
On May 22, the Calcutta High Court struck down the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010, deeming such reservations in state services and posts illegal.
“Issue notice, including on the application of stay (of the judgment filed by the state government). The state of West Bengal shall file an affidavit before this court explaining the process followed for classification of 77 communities as OBCs: (1) the nature of the survey; (2) whether there was a lack of consultation with the Commission (state backward panel) in respect of any communities in the list of 77 communities designated as OBCs,” stated a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra.
The bench also inquired whether any consultation was conducted by the state for the sub-classification of the OBCs.
The state government filed the appeal against the high court verdict, which noted, “Religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion” for declaring these communities as OBCs. The high court added that the selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backwards is “an affront to the Muslim community as a whole.”
In total, the high court struck down 77 classes of reservation given between April and September 2010, and 37 classes created based on a 2012 law.
The Supreme Court’s demand for data and a detailed explanation underscores the necessity for transparency and justification in the classification of communities as OBCs, particularly when the classification impacts public sector job reservations and social equity.
