NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, which is hearing the West Bengal government’s appeal against the high court’s decision to cancel its order to include 77 communities in the state’s list of other backward classes (OBC), has agreed to decide whether these communities can be permitted to receive quota benefits this year as an interim measure.
“On the next date we will consider if any interim relief can be granted,” a bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and KV Viswanathan said, and posted the case for the next hearing on December 9.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by the Bengal government challenging the May 22 decision of the Calcutta high court that scrapped the state’s decision to extend reservation in vacancies and admissions to 77 communities in the state within the 17% quota for OBC category. An overwhelming majority of these communities were Muslim.
In August, the top court issued notice on the state’s appeal and asked the government to furnish the basis on which reservation benefits were extended to these communities.
On Friday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the state along with advocate Astha Sharma said that a piquant situation has been created by the high court order as these communities are recognised as OBCs in the central list and even in neighbouring states.
Sibal said that the matter required an urgent hearing as the academic year was about to pass and the high court invalidates all caste certificates issued since 2010. The high court order, however, had protected those who were already in service based on the certificate issued by the state.
“Even for staying the HC order, we require an elaborate hearing. We have laid down that unless there is data to show they deserve reservation, this cannot be done. We will consider on December 9,” the court said.
The Calcutta high court order faulted the process adopted by the state in undertaking their inclusion. “Identification of the classes in the said community as OBCs for electoral gains would leave them at the mercy of the concerned political establishment and may defeat and deny other rights. Such reservation is therefore also an affront to democracy and the Constitution of India as a whole,” the high court said in its May verdict.
According to the state government, the high court judgment would roughly affect 500,000 people. West Bengal provides 17% percent OBC reservation, divided into two buckets – OBC A which has 10% and 81 communities, out of which 56 are Muslim, and OBC B which has 7% and 99 communities, out of which 41 are Muslim.
