The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered an interim stay on notifications issued by the West Bengal government with regard to reservations to 140 subsections under OBC-A and OBC-B categories made by it.
A division bench comprising justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha, in an interim stay till July 31, directed that executive notifications between May 8 and June 13 with regard to Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories made by the state government will not be given effect to till that date.
The court directed that all consequential acts thereof will also remain stayed till July 31.
All the parties in the matter were directed by the court to file their affidavits in the meantime on their contentions with regard to the challenge over new benchmark surveys for the purpose of inclusion under OBC categories in a PIL and the notifications.
The state government has included 49 subsections under the OBC-A and 91 under the OBC-B categories vide the executive notifications.
It has been stated that while more backward sections of people have been included under OBC-A, the less backward people come under OBC-B.
The Calcutta High Court had in May 2024 struck down the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010, finding such reservations to vacancies in services and posts in the state are illegal.
The court struck down 77 classes of reservation given between April 2010 and September 2010, and 37 classes were created based on the state's Reservation Act of 2012.
This order was challenged before the Supreme Court by the West Bengal government and the matter is pending there.
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