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NDTV
3 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Supreme Court Relief For Mamata Banerjee On High Court's "Suprising" OBC Order
New Delhi: The Calcutta High Court interim stay on notifications issued by the West Bengal government - with regard to reservations for Other Backward Classes, or OBCs - was "surprising" and "prima facie erroneous", the Supreme Court said Monday morning. The Supreme Court stayed the High Court order and issued a notice on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's government's plea, and said it would hear the matter after two weeks. "This is surprising. We will issue notice in this. How can the High Court order a stay? Reservation is a part of the functions of the Executive. Since Indira Sawhney (referring to the landmark 1992 case that focused on reservations for OBCs) the Supreme Court has said this." At first the bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai considered placing this hearing before a different bench of the Calcutta High Court, but ultimately listed matter after two weeks. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Bengal government, mentioned this matter before Chief Justice Gavai. "A writ petition was filed... challenging the new list, saying we have to legislate it, which is contrary to all judgements," he said. To this the Chief Justice stressed that "right from (the Indira Sawhney judgement) the position is that the Executive can do (this)". Mr Sibal also asked for a contempt petition that had been filed in the High Court be stayed. "Let the matter get listed," the Chief Justice said. Mamata Banerjee's government had moved the top court against the High Court's order last month staying the new list of OBCs. A division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, in an interim stay till July 31, directed that executive notifications between May 8 and June 13 with regard to OBC categories made by the state government will not be given effect to till that date. All the parties in the matter were directed by the court to file their affidavits in the meantime on their contentions with regard to the challenge over new benchmark surveys for the purpose of inclusion under OBC categories in a PIL and the notifications. The state government has included 49 subsections under the OBC-A and 91 under the OBC-B categories vide the executive notifications. It has been stated that while more backward sections of people have been included under OBC-A, the less backward people come under OBC-B. The Calcutta High Court had in May 2024 struck down the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010, finding such reservations to vacancies in services and posts in the state are illegal. The court struck down 77 classes of reservation given between April 2010 and September 2010, and 37 classes were created based on the state's Reservation Act of 2012. This order was challenged before the Supreme Court by the West Bengal government and the matter is pending there.
The Hindu
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Supreme Court to hear West Bengal challenge to HC stay on fresh OBC list exercise on July 28
The Supreme Court on Thursday (July 24, 2025) raised doubts about the Calcutta High Court decision to stay an effort by the West Bengal government to finalise a new list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the State. Also Read | In mission to trigger review of State OBC lists, NCBC hits a wall of absent socio-economic data Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai remarked that judicial precedent, right from the nine-judge Bench historic verdict in the Indira Sawhney case in 1992, dictated that backward classes in the society could be identified through Executive directions. Orally mentioning the plea for West Bengal, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the State was even facing contempt action from the High Court. He said a writ petition was filed in the High Court claiming that a new list could be prepared only if the exercise was backed by legislation. The High Court had consequently stayed the State exercise on June 17. 'The High Court orders came on the writ petition saying classification of backward classes should be on the basis of a legislation… That we (State) has to legislate… This morning the case was listed for contempt,' Mr. Sibal submitted. The CJI responded orally that 'it [classification] can be done by Executive instructions… This has been so since the Indira Sawhney judgment'. The Bench listed the case for hearing on July 28. 'The contempt should not go on,' Mr. Sibal urged. The Chief Justice indicated that the court would pass orders on Monday. In March, West Bengal had opted to withdraw from the Supreme Court its appeal against a High Court judgment of May 2024 which struck down a State policy to include several castes, largely Muslim communities, in the OBC list. Also Read | BJP, Trinamool wage war of words over West Bengal's revised OBC list The High Court had concluded that religion was the 'sole criterion for declaring these communities as OBC'. It had found the 'selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backwards an affront to the Muslim community as a whole'. At the time of the withdrawal of the appeal from the top court, Mr. Sibal had informed that the State Backward Classes Commission would prepare a fresh list after identifying socially and educationally backward communities. The 2024 High Court judgment had impacted five lakh OBC certificates issued in the State since 2010. It had struck down portions of the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012. Among the Sections nullified were Section 16, the second part of Section 2(h), and Section 5(a) of the Act, which distributed reservation percentages of 10% and 7% to the sub-classified categories. Consequently, the sub-classified categories OBC-A and OBC-B were removed from Schedule I of the Act.
News18
22-04-2025
- Politics
- News18
Nod To Caste Census May Make Karnataka 4th State To Cross Supreme Court's 50% Quota 'Lakshman Rekha'
Last Updated: Karnataka will join the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu and eastern states of Jharkhand and Bihar in crossing the limit set on the extent of reservation by the apex court in the Indira Sawhney case Karnataka is set to become the fourth state in the country to cross the 50 per cent 'Lakshman Rekha' set by the Supreme court for reservations if the caste census report is accepted by the state cabinet. Karnataka will join the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu (69 per cent) and eastern states of Jharkhand (77 per cent) and Bihar (64 per cent) in crossing the limit set on the extent of reservation by the apex court in the Indira Sawhney case. As per the socio-economic-educational survey, popularly known as the caste census conducted by the state backward classes commission, reservation in Karnataka will go up from 49 per cent to nearly 70 per cent if its recommendations are accepted by the state cabinet. One of the major recommendations of the survey report has been that the 32 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (covering all the categories—1A, 1B, 2A, 2B,3A and3B) must be raised to 51 per cent. The report justifies it by stating that the reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had already been enhanced from 18 to 24 per cent. With this increase, the total percentage of reservation—32 per cent for OBCs and 24 per cent for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes—would go up to 56 per cent. 'In other words, the 'Lakshman Rekha' set by the Supreme court has already been breached. Therefore, the survey report has recommended a higher percentage of reservation for some of the categories," a senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told CNN-News18. Ministers belonging to e thtwo communities had taken serious exception to the reduced population at the specially called but inconclusive cabinet meeting on Thursday. The other objection that they had raised was that considerable sections of the population had been left out while conducting the door-to-door survey. This is quite contrary to the contention of chief minister Siddaramaiah and law minister HK Patil that the survey had covered 94.17 per cent of the population as per the 2011 census report. For the longest time, the Vokkaligas were estimated to be 14 per cent of the population, while the Lingayats constituted 17 per cent. But the caste survey report has said Vokkaligas' population was 10.3 per cent, while that of Lingayats was 11 per cent. According to the survey report, the Vokkaligas have a population of 72,99,577. The Lingayats, on the other hand, number 81,37,536 in a population of 5,98,14,942 when the survey was conducted in 2015. The survey was ordered by Siddaramaiah when he was chief minister during his first term—2013-18. The survey report has also moved up the Kurubas, the largest OBC community in the state, to Category 1B from 2A. The Kurubas (to which Siddaramaiah belongs) have been clubbed with smaller backward communities. The total population in this category is listed as 73,92,313. Of this, the Kurubas constitute about 44 lakh. As per the categorisation, Category 1A consists of nomadic and non-nomadic castes, whose number totals to 34,96, 638. In terms of reservation, Category 1A and 1B had been allocated four per cent reservation. But this has been enhanced now to six per cent for 1A and 12 per cent for 1B. However, the report has applied the creamy layer concept for Category 1 and 2 for the first time. The creamy layer norm was already applicable to Category 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B. Similarly, for category 2A that consists of 102 backward castes, the population has been recorded as 77,78,209 lakh. In this category, the percentage of reservation has been reduced from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. In Category 2B, which consists of Muslims with 99 sub-castes, the population has been recorded at 75,25,880 and the percentage of reservation has been enhanced from four per cent to eight per cent. Contrary to the controversy over Muslims getting double the reservation from four to eight per cent, the survey report has also provided a similar increase in the reservation percentage from four per cent to seven per cent for the Vokkaligas, which is the sole community in Category 3A. In the case of the LIngayats in Category 3B, the percentage of reservation has been enhanced from five per cent to eight per cent. If the new category of the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of 10 per cent is added to the overall reservation for OBCs (51 per cent), the total reservation, along with the 24 per cent for SCs and STs, will take reservation to 85 per cent. This means that if the Karnataka cabinet accepts the recommendation in toto, it will have to send its proposal to the Union government which, in turn, will have to amend the 9th schedule of the Constitution to make it possible for states to implement reservation policies in which the number exceeds the 50 per cent mark. Senior minister in the government Ramalinga Reddy said the chief minister has asked the cabinet to give their objections in writing. However, another senior minister on condition of anonymity, said while the reservation slab has been breached long again by other states, it needs to be known as to whether it would stand the test of law in court. News18 India delivers breaking news, top headlines, and live updates on politics, weather, elections, law and crime, much more. Stay informed with real-time coverage and in-depth analysis of current events across India. First Published:
