Calcutta HC Scraps OBC Certificates Awarded To 77 Communities In West Bengal Since 2010

The Calcutta High Court has scrapped all Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010. A division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha pronounced the verdict, while delivering a judgement on a PIL challenging the process of granting OBC certificates. The high court bench termed the OBC list prepared after 2010 as illegal. 

The court directed that a fresh list of OBCs be prepared based on the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act of 1993 by the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes.

The court, however, clarified that the



order will not affect the services of citizens of the ejected classes, who are already in service or have been benefitted by reservation or have succeeded in any selection process of the state.

Meanwhile, the court further added that there was no interference with regard to the state government’s executive orders classifying 66 classes of OBCs before 2010, as the petitions did not challenge them.

The PIL was filed in 2011, claimed that all OBC certificates given out after 2010 bypassed the 1993 West Bengal Backward Class Commission Act.