GG News Bureau
Kolkata, 17th June: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday issued an interim stay on notifications from the West Bengal government concerning reservations for 140 subsections under the OBC-A and OBC-B categories.
A division bench, comprising Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha, directed that executive notifications issued between May 8 and June 13 regarding Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories by the state government would not be given effect until July 31. The court further ordered that all consequential actions related to these notifications would also remain stayed until the same date.
The court has instructed all parties involved in the matter to submit their affidavits by July 31, outlining their contentions regarding the challenge over new benchmark surveys for inclusion under OBC categories in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and the related notifications.
The state government had included 49 subsections under the OBC-A category and 91 under the OBC-B category through the executive notifications. The categorization distinguishes OBC-A for more backward sections and OBC-B for less backward sections.
This development follows a previous ruling by the Calcutta High Court in May 2024, which struck down the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010. That ruling deemed such reservations for vacancies in state services and posts illegal. Specifically, the court struck down reservations for 77 classes granted between April 2010 and September 2010, and 37 classes created based on the state’s Reservation Act of 2012.
The West Bengal government has challenged the May 2024 order before the Supreme Court, where the matter is currently pending.
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