Why young Muslims from Bengal want the Supreme Court to restore their OBC status
Five months after the Calcutta High Court struck down the OBC categorisation of several Muslim communities, two young men have approached the Supreme Court.
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“The High Court judgement hit my job prospects hard,” said Shahanawaz Ali Molla. “After the cancellation of my OBC certificate, I have had to fill exam forms as a general category candidate, in which the competition is stiffer.”
Molla is a 27-year old history graduate from Pathradaha village in Nadia district of West Bengal. The son of a daily wage agricultural labourer, with a family income less than Rs 6,000 a month, he hails from the Muslim Molla community that the West Bengal government included in the state list of Other Backward Classes in 2010.
The inclusion enabled students like him to get access to college seats reserved for OBC applicants. Molla had hoped that it would also help him secure a public sector job, which, like millions of other young people across the country, he sees as a path towards economic security.
But his hopes came crashing down in May when the Calcutta High Court cancelled the Other Backward Class categorisation of 77 communities, most of them Muslim, including Molla’s. This rendered over 5 lakh OBC certificates, like the one with Molla, void.
The West Bengal government challenged the judgement in the Supreme Court, which refused to stay it last month. As a result, the 77 communities are no...
