23-05-2025
Stick to pre-2010 7% quota on OBC students: Court
Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Thursday directed the West Bengal University of Health Sciences (WBUHS) —Kolkata-based government medical university— to enrol students by providing 7% reservation to 66 other backward classes (OBCs) communities notified in the state before 2010.
A single bench of justice Kausik Chanda in its order noted that a division bench of the high court in May last year had struck down the state's reservation policy, which categorised OBCs into A and B categories and introduced 10% and 7% reservation, respectively.
'The state is mandated to apply the OBC reservations only for the 66 classes that have been included in the list of backward classes notified by the backward class department of the state prior to 2009. The extent of OBC reservations in the state should be 7%, in terms of notification dated November 6, 1997,' justice Chanda said in the order, seen by HT.
'The caste certificates issued for 66 classes before 2010 have not been interfered with and 7% reservation for them has been maintained,' the order added.
A division bench of the high court on May 22, 2024 cancelled the OBC status awarded to 77 Muslim communities by the state since 2010, prompting the government to suspend quota-based recruitments and admissions. The TMC government challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court.
Before the May last year order, West Bengal provided 17% OBC reservation in public sector jobs and state-run educational institutions. It was divided into two brackets — OBC-A, entitled to 10% reservation and comprising 81 communities, of which 56 were Muslims; and OBC-B, which provided for 7% reservation and included 99 communities, of which 41 were Muslims.
'It is apparent that the division bench has struck down the categorisation of OBC-A and OBC-B. The division bench has also struck down the reservation policy of the state, which introduced 10% reservation for OBC-A category and 7% reservation for OBC-B,' the court noted in its order on Thursday.
The court was hearing a petition filed by PG medical course aspirants for 2024-25. The petition said that the merit list for admission was published in November 2024 but the authorities did not complete admission process, citing the state's special leave petition (SLP) pending before the Supreme Court.
'I find no justification in the stance of the respondents. From the orders passed by the Supreme Court in the aforesaid special leave petition, it is absolutely clear that the Supreme Court did not grant any stay order against the division bench order, although the prayer for a stay order was specifically considered by the Supreme Court on a number of occasions,' justice Chanda said in the order.
The judge also noted that on March 18, 2025, the state government submitted before the apex court that the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes was 'undertaking an exercise of examining the issue of backward classes afresh, which is likely to take a further three months' time.'
West Bengal University of Health Sciences officials did not respond to HT's request for a comment on the high court's order. TMC leaders also declined to comment, saying they were yet to get a legal opinion on the order.
The Opposition BJP targeted the Mamata Banerjee-led government, with leader of Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari criticising the state government for failing to implement the OBC reservation order issued by the division bench of the high court a year ago.
'The state government getting under the scanner is now a routine affair,' Adhikari said in a post on X, adding the plea of the state regarding the issue pending before the Supreme Court has been thwarted. '…Bad days ahead for the corrupt, pseudo-secular state government.'
