Key Points

This order is a big setback for the Mamata government.

A division bench comprising Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Raja Sekhar Mantha passed the interim order while hearing petitions challenging the state's classification of communities under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

Judges said that necessary steps should be taken regarding the 66 communities belonging to the OBC category.

In this latest OBC notification there are listed 140 communities. However, OBC certificates issued before 2010 under the 1993 law remain valid for employment and admissions.

The bench warned that the executive cannot bypass legislative procedures, stating that half the process was followed and the rest done unilaterally.

Petitioners claimed the survey was flawed, with limited samples and negligible changes from the earlier list. The state admitted that college admissions and recruitment are stalled due to the case.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Ashok Chakraborty, representing the Centre, pointed out that the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) had sought clarification from the state on how Muslim and OBC classifications were identified.

The NCBC minutes mentioned that several communities had converted from Hinduism to Islam, complicating census data.

Justice Rajasekhar Mantha raised the question to state, saying, "You have done half the work according to the 2012 OBC Act. Then you have gone back to the 1993 Act. Why is this? Why didn't you amend the 2012 Act? You have been providing benefits for the last 15 years. The law says that a survey has to be done after 10 years. That survey has not been done."

- ANI