• Source:JND
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The Calcutta High Court struck down the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal on Wednesday, finding such reservations under the Act of 2012 for vacancies in services and posts in the state illegal. The court, passing judgment on petitions challenging the provisions of the act, clarified that the services of citizens of the struck-down classes, who are already in service or have availed the benefit of reservation, or have succeeded in any selection process of the state will not be affected by the order.

Responding to the judgment, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asserted that she “will not accept” the order. Addressing a poll rally at Khardah under the Dumdum Lok Sabha constituency, Banerjee said the OBC reservation will continue in the state, as the bill concerned was passed within the framework of the Constitution.

“The OBC reservation quota introduced by the West Bengal government will continue. We had drafted the Bill after conducting a house-to-house survey, and it was passed by the cabinet and the assembly,” she said.

The judgment, according to a lawyer involved in the matter, would impact a significant number of people, reports PTI. The judgment struck down several classes for reservation as Other Backward Classes (OBC) given under The West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012.

According to news agency PTI, the division bench comprising justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha clarified that the executive orders of the state government classifying 66 classes of OBC before 2010 were not interfered with, since these were not challenged in the petitions. The bench also directed that the state's executive orders classifying 42 classes as OBCs from March 5, 2010, to May 11, 2012, were also quashed, with prospective effect, in view of the illegality of the reports recommending such classification.

The bench said that the opinion and advice of the Backward Classes Commission is ordinarily binding on the state legislature under the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993. It has directed the Backward Classes Welfare Department of the state, in consultation with the Commission, to place a report before the legislature with recommendations for the inclusion of new classes or the exclusion of remaining classes in the state list of OBCs. 

(With input from agencies)