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Time of India
28-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Apex court lifts HC stay on West Bengal OBC list
NEW DELHI: In a major relief to Mamata Banerjee government , the Supreme Court on Monday lifted the Calcutta HC stay on implementation of the new list of OBC sub-groups, including 80 belonging to the Muslim community, and said it is well settled that the Executive can notify such a list without passing a legislation. On June 17, the HC had stayed the new OBC List entitling to quota benefits 140 sub-groups under OBC-A and OBC-B categories. The earlier list, which was struck down by HC, had 113 OBC sub-groups, with 77 from the Muslim community and 36 from others. The appeal of the Bengal govt challenging the quashing of the earlier list is still pending before the SC. Appearing for the state, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the stay has put the govt in a piquant position as it faces the task of recruiting 40,000 teachers and preparing a roster. A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Najaria said, "Prima facie the HC order is erroneous. A 9-judge constitution bench of the SC has settled the law and ruled that List of sub-groups for availing quota can be notified by the Executive without a legislation". On a petition by one Amal Chandra Das challenging the new OBC list, an HC bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha had on June 17 directed that executive notifications issued between May 8 and June 13 about OBC categories will not go into effect till July 31. The SC bench said: "How the HC stay the notification without giving reasons? It is in the teeth of a constitution bench judgment of the SC. If you all agree, we can request the HC chief justice to assign the matter to a special bench, other than the judges who heard the matter, and decide the issue on merits". Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocates Ranjit Kumar and Guru Krishna Kumar said the HC has not imposed any stay on the implementation of OBC reservations based on the list existing prior to 2010, which had 66 sub-groups. "It is the state which has enacted legislation laying down the procedure for inclusion and exclusion of sub-groups from OBC List. Once the procedure is laid down in law, it must be followed scrupulously, which the govt didn't, thus, inviting a stay from the HC," they said. "The state law mandates that the State Backward Class Commission is to be consulted, which was not done by the state. No survey was undertaken to identify the sub-groups which should be included. What they did was to reintroduce the list of sub-groups whose inclusion was quashed by the HC earlier," they held. Sibal, on the other hand, said a survey was done and 76 new sub-groups were added to the earlier list. The petitioner had not challenged the survey done for this purpose, he said.
News18
11-06-2025
- Politics
- News18
'One-Sided Beneficiary Classes': BJP Takes On Mamata Govt Over OBC List In Bengal, TMC Hits Back
Last Updated: The TMC hit back at the BJP to "stop misleading the people" and said the party's "only agenda" was "divide and rule" with an eye on the 2026 assembly elections A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said backwardness is the only benchmark to decide OBC status, the ruling TMC and opposition BJP exchanged barbs over the inclusion of beneficiaries under the category. The BJP, in a detailed post on social media, accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of 'appeasement politics". It said for the Bengal government, OBC expanded to 'One-Sided Beneficiary Classes" and not Other Backward Classes. The TMC hit back at the BJP's claims about the new list and to 'stop misleading the people with your lies". It said the saffron party's 'only agenda" is 'divide and rule" with an eye on the assembly elections in 2026. On Tuesday (June 10), Mamata Banerjee told the state assembly that there is no connection with religion in deciding the inclusion of any person in the OBC category. She said the only benchmark to decide this in the state is backwardness and a commission set up by the state government is holding a survey on 50 new subsections for inclusion in that category. Banerjee addressed the House after laying the annual report of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes for the financial year 2024-25. WHAT DID THE BJP SAY? In a post on social media, opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari claimed to 'fact check" Banerjee's speech on the floor of the state assembly. He said this was 'peak appeasement politics" by the state government. 'OBC = Other Backward Classes. In West Bengal it means One-Sided Beneficiary Classes," he said in a post on X. Adhikari alleged that the reservation list is prepared with the intention of providing 'exclusively to Muslims" and 'deliberately depriving" Hindus and other religious communities. He said the government has increased the reservation for OBCs in state services and posts to 17 per cent, including 10 per cent reservation for 'more backward' and 7 per cent for 'backward' classes categories. Before this, he added, a 7 per cent reservation had been in place since 1997. 'Now, who are going to reap the benefits of the increased reservation for the OBCs? Muslims, as simple as that," he wrote. OBC = Other Backward Classes In West Bengal it means One-Sided Beneficiary Banerjee, said yesterday on the floor of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly that OBC List not prepared on the basis of Fact Check her claim. Just look at the Peak of… — Suvendu Adhikari (@SuvenduWB) June 11, 2025 The BJP leader said in December 2024, the Supreme Court had observed reservation must not be based on religion. This was while it was hearing an appeal filed by the West Bengal government against the Calcutta High Court judgment striking down its policy to include several castes, largely Muslim communities, in the state's OBC list.
