The Supreme Court of India issued a notice on Monday to the respondents in response to a petition filed by the West Bengal Government, challenging the Calcutta High Court’s decision to cancel all OBC certificates issued in the state after 2010.
The apex court also notified the private litigants who had contested the inclusion of 77 castes, mainly Muslims, in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) list at the Calcutta High Court, according to PTI reports.
On May 22, the high court nullified the OBC status of several castes in West Bengal, granted since 2010, declaring that such reservations for state service and post vacancies were illegal.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra stated, “Issue notice, including on the application of stay (of the judgment filed by the state government).”
The bench directed the West Bengal government to submit an affidavit detailing the process followed for classifying the 77 communities as OBCs, including the nature of the survey conducted and whether there was a lack of consultation with the State Backward Classes Commission regarding any of these communities.
The bench also questioned whether the state had conducted any consultations regarding the sub-classification of OBCs. The state government has appealed the high court’s ruling, as per PTI reports.
The high court had previously stated that “religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion” for declaring these communities as OBCs and added that the selection of 77 Muslim classes as backward was “an affront to the Muslim community as a whole.”
Overall, the high court invalidated reservations granted to 77 classes between April and September 2010, as well as 37 classes established under a 2012 law.
