West Bengal OBC case: Supreme Court to hear pleas challenging Calcutta HC order in January

Supreme Court postpones hearing on OBC status challenge in West Bengal, seeks data on backwardness for decision.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 7, 2024) posted the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging a Calcutta High Court verdict striking down the OBC status of several castes in West Bengal granted since 2010 to January 28 and 29.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih deferred the matter after noting that the issue required detailed hearing.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta apprised the court that the National Commission for Backward Classes has filed its affidavit in the matter. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the West Bengal government.

The Supreme Court had earlier observed that reservation cannot made be on the basis of religion.

The high court last year struck down the Other Backward Classes (OBC) status of several castes in West Bengal granted since 2010, holding the reservation for them in public sector jobs and state-run educational institutions as illegal.

In its verdict, the high court said, "Religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion for declaring these communities as OBCs." "Selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backwards is an affront to the Muslim community as a whole," it said.

Deciding the petitions challenging the provisions of the state's reservation law of 2012 and the reservations granted in 2010, the high court 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.