Calcutta High Court to Rule on West Bengal's OBC Survey Controversy
Interim Order Expected from Calcutta High Court
Kolkata, June 17: A division bench of the Calcutta High Court is set to issue an interim ruling on Tuesday regarding a petition that challenges the methodology of a new survey initiated by the West Bengal government to identify Other Backward Classes (OBCs) within the state.
This new survey was launched following a commitment made by the state government to the Supreme Court on March 18, during proceedings related to a previous ruling from May 2024, which annulled all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010.
During the March 18 hearing, the state government assured the apex court that the survey would be completed within three months. However, a petition was subsequently filed in the Calcutta High Court contesting the survey's approach.
The petitioner alleged that the state government was only accepting applications from 113 OBC communities whose certificates were invalidated by the earlier court ruling.
In a previous hearing, the division bench raised concerns about the survey's execution, noting that if eligible individuals are unaware of the survey's details, they could be unjustly denied their rights, undermining the survey's intended purpose.
The court instructed the state government to enhance awareness of the survey by disseminating information through advertisements at the grassroots level, starting from village panchayats. Throughout the hearings, the state's legal representatives argued that the survey was conducted in accordance with court directives.
To recap, in May of the previous year, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court invalidated all OBC certificates issued after 2010, effectively nullifying over 500,000 certificates issued during the current Trinamool Congress administration since 2011, which could no longer be utilized for job reservation benefits.
Following this ruling, the West Bengal government appealed to the Supreme Court, which permitted the state to carry out a fresh survey to identify OBCs in March of this year.