Supreme Court stays Calcutta HC order blocking new OBC list in West Bengal

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Calcutta High Court order blocking the implementation of a West Bengal government notification classifying 140 communities as Other Backward Classes, verbally observing that it seemed to be “prima facie erroneous”, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria expressed surprise at the High Court’s reasoning that only the legislature could approve the OBC list, and not the executive.

“How can the High Court stay like this?” Live Law quoted the Supreme Court as saying. “Reservation is part of the executive functions. This is the settled law... Executive instructions are enough for providing reservations and legislation is not necessary.”

The matter pertains to a notification issued by the West Bengal government earlier in June that added 76 sub-castes to the OBC category, taking the total number of communities in the grouping to 140.

Out of these, 80 communities are from among Muslims, while 60 are non-Muslims, The Indian Express reported. Muslims comprise 57.1% of the population included in the OBC category.

The state government’s previous list of OBCs had 113 sub-groups, of which 77 were Muslims and 36 non-Muslims. However, the High Court had in May 2024 struck down the list, and had reduced OBC reservations from 17% to 7%.

The new list would allow the state government to restore OBC reservations...

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