Will conduct fresh OBC survey, Bengal informs Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The West Bengal government on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that the state commission for backward classes will conduct a fresh exercise to assess the backwardness of different communities to bring them within the OBC category to grant reservation.
Appearing before a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the state, said that the exercise would be completed within three months and sought adjournment hearing of the case challenging Calcutta high court order cancelling OBC certificate issued in the state since 2010.
Allowing the plea of the state, the bench said that the exercise would not prejudice the rights of either of the parties in the proceedings.
The state has challenged the Calcutta high court's May 22 2024 verdict that struck down the OBC status of several castes in West Bengal. The HC had said, “Religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion for declaring these communities as OBCs.”

During the hearing in SC, West Bengal government had stood by its decision to include 77 castes to the OBC list saying that additions were made after conducting the required elaborate three-tier process, including two surveys and a hearing by backward class commission, but let out that it completed the elaborate process in less than 24 hours in the case of certain Muslim communities.
The Khotta Muslim com munity made an application on November 13, 2009, and on the same day the WB Commission for Backward Classes (WBCBC) recommended its inclusion in the OBC list. Similarly, Muslim Jamadar community was recommended to be added to the list the day (April 21, 2010) it filed an application.