The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Monday passed two amendment bills to formally change the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation laws and remove various Muslim communities from the OBC lists as directed by the Calcutta High Court in May 2024.
The amendments also revised the reservation quota for OBCs from 10% to 7% and reorganized OBC categories. The 1993 Act applicable to the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission was also amended.
The BJP government had ordered and notified this in May, but the laws have not been amended yet.
The Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Jobs (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes (Amendment) Bill, 2026 have been introduced by Backward Classes Development Minister Gaurishankar Ghosh.
“Fake OBC Certificates” claim.
“As per the directions of the Supreme Court, all OBC-listed communities were removed without any survey by the previous (Trinamool Congress) government – just to provide undue advantage to Muslims. Only 66 communities were added after retaining the polls,” Ghosh said while addressing the assembly.
“The West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes will conduct surveys on the actual situation of OBCs. The previous government has completely bypassed the commission. The bills will also ensure that fake OBC certificates are not issued anymore. This was rampant during the previous regime,” Ghosh said.
What has changed?
In May, days after coming to power in Bengal for the first time, the BJP government scrapped the OBC status given to 77 Muslim communities during the TMC regime and reduced the reservation quota for all OBCs to just 7%. Both were ordered by the Calcutta High Court two years ago.
The Suvendu Adhikari government issued the notification on May 18, citing the order passed by a division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha on May 22, 2024.
“The Governor is pleased to accordingly inform that the state list of OBCs consists of the following sixty-six (66) categories to avail 7% reservation in services and posts under the Government of West Bengal,” the notification said listing the 66 approved OBC communities. HT has seen a copy of the document.
The specific Muslim communities retained in the new OBC list include the Jula (Ansari believer), Fakir, Pahdia Muslim, Hijam (Muslim), and Chuduli (Muslim).
The 77 deleted communities include Muslim Nahariya, Muslim Haldar, Muslim Sanpoy, Muslim Mali, Gosi (Muslim), Muslim Darji/Ustagar/Idrisi, Muslim Rajmistri, Muslim Patiyara, Muslim Mola, Dali (Muslim) and a group of others.
background
The Supreme Court order was passed in May 2024 after multiple hearings on petitions filed by three individuals and the human rights organization Atmadib, between 2010 and 2020. The petitioners alleged that reservations under OBC-A and OBC-B categories have been granted to several communities since 2011 – when the TMC first came to power – without any assessment of their economic status.
In 2010, the Left government headed by then Prime Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced 10% reservation in state government jobs for “economically, socially and educationally backward” or “most backward” Muslims who fall under the OBC-A category. On the other hand, ‘backward’ Muslims who fall under the OBC-B category enjoy 7% reservation.
The 10% reservation for OBC-A category was based on the recommendations of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra whose report was submitted by Parliament in December 2009.
Of the 108 communities included in the OBC (A and B) lists, there were 53 Muslim communities as of 2010. After coming to power in 2011, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee included more in phases.
What the Supreme Court said
The Supreme Court order 2024 made strong statements, sparking political controversy.
The order, a copy of which was seen by HT, said: “This court is of the view that the selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backward is an insult to the Muslim community as a whole. The mind of this court is not free from doubt that the said community has been treated as a commodity for political purposes. This is clear from the chain of events that led to the classification of the 77 classes as backward classes and their inclusion to be treated as a vote bank.”
“Identifying castes in the said community as OBCs for electoral gains would leave them at the mercy of the political establishment concerned and may defeat and deny other rights. Hence, such reservation is also an affront to democracy and the Constitution of India as a whole,” the order said.
Then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that it was passed at the behest of the BJP.
The BJP won 207 of the state’s 294 seats in the April elections held in two phases. On Monday, 186 members voted in favor of the bills while 17 voted against.
