The Supreme Court also issued notices to the private plaintiffs who had filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court challenging the inclusion of 77 castes, mostly Muslims, in the list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) | (Photo: PTI)
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the West Bengal government to furnish quantifiable data on the social and economic backwardness and inadequate representation in government posts of the castes placed by the High Court in the OBC list for grant of quota benefits.
The Supreme Court also issued notices to the private parties who had filed petitions in the Calcutta High Court challenging the inclusion of 77 castes, mostly Muslims, in the list of Other Backward Classes (OBC).
On May 22, the Supreme Court annulled the OBC status granted to various classes in West Bengal since 2010, holding that such reservations in service sector vacancies and posts in the state are illegal.
“Issue notice, including on the application for stay (of the judgment filed by the state government). The state of West Bengal shall file an affidavit before this court explaining the process followed for classifying 77 communities as OBCs; (1) the nature of the enquiry; (2) whether there was any lack of consultation with the Commission (state retrograde panel) with regard to communities in the list of 77 communities designated as OBCs,” a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said.
The court also wondered whether the state had consulted on the subclassification of the OBCs.
The state government has appealed the high court ruling.
“Religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion” for designating these communities as OBCs, the top court said, adding that it “is of the view that the selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backward is an insult to the Muslim community as a whole”.
In all, the Supreme Court rejected 77 categories of reservations granted between April and September 2010 and 37 categories created under a 2012 law.
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First print: Aug 05, 2024 | 2:35 PM IST
