The Supreme Court of India has agreed to hear the West Bengal government's plea challenging a Calcutta High Court verdict that removed the Other Backward Classes (OBC) status for 77 communities in the state. The case centres on whether these communities—predominantly from the Muslim community—should retain their OBC status.
Included in this list of 77 communities as eligible for OBC status was issued by the Government of West Bengal but declared unconstitutional by the Calcutta High Court. It said that the basis of presumptive reservation on religion was unconstitutional. West Bengal is now appealing to the Supreme Court by arguing that the decision granting OBC status to these communities was well founded in socio-economic backwardness and not religion.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who represents the government of West Bengal, defended the state's decision on the merits of providing reservation due to backwardness and not on religion, which, according to him, is all within the constitutional provisions. He emphasized that all actions by the government aim at providing social justice to historically marginalized communities without considering their religion.
The 77 communities are mostly Muslim communities and a few pertain to other religions as well. These communities have been said to have socioeconomic disadvantages, and so the government felt it advisable for them to continue receiving OBC benefits for their upliftment.
The next date of hearing of the Supreme Court on this matter has been fixed on January 7, 2025. This case has sparked wider debates about reservation and backwardness and entering religion into caste-based affirmative action.
On August 5, a bench headed by then Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud directed the West Bengal government to justify its decision to categorize 77 communities, the majority of which were Muslim, as Other Backward Classes (OBC). The court instructed the state government to provide details of the survey conducted to assess the social and educational backwardness of these communities, as well as their underrepresentation in state services.