Calcutta HC cancels OBC certificates for 77 groups, Mamata rejects order

 

The Calcutta High Court canceled the OBC status of 77 mostly Muslim communities, calling the process illegal. Political debates ensued.

In a landmark judgment for the Trinamool, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday canceled the Other Retroactive Certificates (OBCs) issued to 77 Muslim-majority communities since 2010 and generally said the distribution process was illegal for the Congress. Elections are about to start. The decision sparked controversy, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying she would not accept the decision and Union Minister Amit Shah accusing the Bengal government of indifference.

Approximately 500,000 people will be affected by this decision. The court immediately stopped the state government from appointing people from these communities but said those currently appointed on the basis of OBC certificate will not be affected.

Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha said, "This Court is of the view that singling out 77 classes of Muslims as a backward group is an insult to the entire Muslim community. The purpose of politics."

"The designation of various sections of the community group as OBC for election will leave them at the mercy of the political concerns of the institution which they may override and deny to any other law. This restriction is also an impediment to freedom and the all-India Constitution."

West Bengal has 17% OBC reservation and is divided into two parts - OBC A 10%, 81 communities of which 56 are Muslims OBC B 7%, 99 communities of which 41 are Muslims. Muslims are the dominant population in the 17 Lok Sabha seats contested in the sixth and seventh phases of the Bengal elections. TMC has 12 seats and BJP has seven.

The court also struck down a key part of the 2012 law that divided the OBC pool.

Of the 77 communities, 42 were designated OBC as rule in 2010 by the erstwhile Left Front government, which was ousted by Banerjee's TMC a year ago. The court said 41 of them were Muslims. Another 35 people (34 of whom are Muslims, according to the decision) were included in the TMC government by the circular dated May 11, 2012 and in whose system special results were achieved. West Bengal Imams Association President Md Yahiya said: "We think this decision is not in the spirit of the constitution. Why is everyone only interested in OBC-A reservation?" Why are similar questions being asked about reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes? "The authorities violated the constitutional law and used anti-discrimination measures unlawfully. No information was disclosed and hence it was found that the community in question could not be represented in the services of the West Bengal government," the court said. said.

The Supreme Court said that the Bengal Backward Welfare Department and the Backward Welfare Committee will send a report to the court with recommendations for inclusion of new classes or exclusion of additional classes in the OBC country.

The decision is based on applications made by 3 individuals and the human organization Atmadeep between 2010 and 2020. Both have benefited without any evaluation of their business since TMC came to power in 2011, many communities have been affected.