Supreme Court to hear West Bengal government’s plea to stay HC verdict quashing OBC classifications on December 9

The Supreme Court announced today (November 22) that it will consider the appeal by the state of West Bengal to stay judgment of the Calcutta High Court cancellation of all OBC (Other Backward Classes) certificates issued after 2010 on 9 December.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan heard a petition filed by the State of West Bengal against May 22 judgmentwhich revoked the classification of 77 communities as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012 and canceled all Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010.

Today, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (for the State of West Bengal) briefly contended that he is seeking a stay of the impugned judgment of the High Court. He added that after the court hears on interim measures, it can proceed to hear the parties on merits.

Sibal stated that the Supreme Court has canceled OBC certificates issued after 2010 on the basis of recruitments. He added that although those in the service are protected, this has stopped further recruitment.

He said: “The inclusion of 76 (communities) has been abolished. We have indicated here that the Central List includes them. We included those from the Central List or from the Mandal Commission or from the SC/ST/OBC counterparts in the neighboring states. The court says they will strike it out even though it is in the central list… The result is that in educational institutions people cannot be admitted. Recruitment cannot take place. All OBC entries have been deleted since 2010. How can this be?”

On August 5, a bench of former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice on the petition for annulment of the High Court’s decision and stay of the contested decision.

The bench 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 lack of consultation with the Commission for Backward Classes 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 OBC and clarify the type of study relied upon.

The The Calcutta High Court on May 22, in its impugned judgment, clarified that those who got employment because of the act and were already in service because of such reservation would not be affected by the order.

A Division Bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha delivered the judgment in a plea challenging the process of granting OBC certificates in the state. The verdict will affect 5 Lakh OBC certificates. The court said:

A class is declared as OBC not only because it is backward, based on scientific and identifiable data, but also because such a class is inadequately represented in government services. Such inadequacy has to be assessed against the population as a whole including other unreserved classes. However, the pro forma published by the Commission and annexed to the writ petition (WP No. 60 of 2011) does not comply with the provisions of the 1993 Act. There are lots of flaws in the said pro forma.

Supreme Court decision

The court ruled on a plea challenging 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.

Observing how the Commission erred in pursuance of the Chief Minister’s mandate to extend reservations, the Court held:

“The Commission and the State acted in undue haste and lightning speed in coming up with 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 hurry to fulfill the wishes expressed by the Chief Minister at a political meeting. No proper inquiry was conducted by the Commission inviting the application for inclusion in the lists and even after purported establishment of the list no notification was made inviting objections generally from the people at large.”

The authorities have thus violated the provisions of the constitution and had practiced protective discrimination in deviation from the norms of the constitution. No data was disclosed on the basis of which it could be concluded 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 no one could avail of the opportunity to object to the same, added it.

The court also noted that the recommendations for sub-classification of OBCs by the state were made after bypassing the state commission, and that 41 of the 42 classes recommended for reservation belonged to the Muslim community,

The court found that the primary and only consideration of the commission had been to make religion-specific recommendations. To guard and hide such religion specific recommendations, the Commission has prepared the reports with the ostensible purpose of giving reservation to the backward classes to hide the real purpose behind such recommendations. The aim was to grant a religion-specific reservation, it said.

The court held that even if the Commission purports to show through such reports, (which however has not been pleaded by the State and the Commission before the Court), that it had complied with Section 9 of the 1993 Act read with Article 16 (4) of the Constitution of India.

Case Details: STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ANR. Versus AMAL CHANDRA DAS Diary No – 27287/2024