West Bengal OBC Classification Issue : State Commission Conducting Fresh Exercise To Identify Backward Classes; Supreme Court Posts Matter To July

In the matter involving a challenge to the quashing of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) classification of 77 communities in West Bengal, the state government told the Supreme Court today that the exercise for identification of OBCs in the state will be conducted afresh and completed in about 3 months.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih was dealing with the petition filed by the State of West Bengal challenging the decision of the Calcutta High Court to quash the OBC classification of 77 communities (mostly Muslim).

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, for West Bengal, told the bench that the exercise to ascertain backwardness of communities is contemplated to be conducted afresh and the same would likely take a period of about 3 months. As such, the matter, without prejudice to the rights of the parties, may be posted to July.

"The West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes has informed the Government of West Bengal that they would conduct the benchmark survey on communities who have applied to the Commission for inclusion in OBC list of West Bengal", he said.

Considering the request, the bench listed the matter in July. "If entire exercise is redone, and after that, fresh reservation is provided for, and nobody is aggrieved, then this question will become academic", noted Justice Gavai.

The order was dictated thus: "Mr Sibal, the learned senior counsel, states that the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes is undertaking an exercise of examining the issue of backwardness afresh. He further submits that the same will likely take 3 months. Post the matter in July. Needless to say, the said exercise would be without prejudice to the rights of either of the parties."

To recap, in August last year, a bench led by former CJI DY Chandrachud, while issuing notice on the State's appeal, had asked it to file an affidavit explaining the process followed for the classification of 77 communities as OBCs : (1) the nature of the survey; (2) whether there was a lack of consultation with the backward classes commission in respect of any communities in the list of 77 communities designated as OBCs.

Later, in December, the Court had orally remarked that reservation cannot be given on the basis of religion. Responding to this, Sibal had apprised that the reservation was granted not on the basis of religion but on the basis of backwardness of the communities. He had further clarified that State of West Bengal had a minority population of 27-28%.

Impugned order of the High Court

The Court was adjudicating a plea that challenged certain provisions of the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012, which made reservations in public offices for those belonging to the OBC category.

In making observations on how the Commission acted improperly in connivance with the Chief Minister's mission to extend reservations, the Court opined:

"The Commission and State acted in undue haste and with lightning speed in making recommendations for the classification of the 77 classes to make the public announcement of the then Chief Minister a reality. According to the petitioners, the Commission appeared to be in a tearing hurry to fulfil the wishes of the Chief Minister made in a political rally. No proper enquiry was conducted by the Commission inviting application for inclusion in the lists and even after purported preparation of the list, no notification was issued inviting objections in general from the people at large."

It further stated that the authorities violated the constitutional provisions and practiced protective discrimination in deviation to the constitutional norms. No data was disclosed on the basis of which it was ascertained that the concerned community was not adequately represented in the services under the government of West Bengal. The said reports were never published and as such, none could avail the opportunity to file any objection to the same.

The Court also observed that the recommendations for sub-classification of OBCs by the state were made upon bypassing the State commission, and that 41 out of the 42 classes that were recommended for reservation belonged to the Muslim community.

It noted that the primary and sole consideration for the Commission had been to make religion-specific recommendations. To curtain and hide such religion-specific recommendations, the Commission had prepared the reports for the ostensible purpose of granting reservation to the backward classes. The purpose was to grant a religion-specific reservation, the Court stated.

It was held that the Commission purported to show by way of such reports, which however were not relied upon by the State or Commission before the Court, that it had complied with Section 9 of the Act of 1993 read with Article 16(4) of the Constitution of India.

Case Title: THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ANR. Versus AMAL CHANDRA DAS, SLP(C) No. 17751-17755/2024