The Calcutta High Court interim stay on notifications issued by the West Bengal government - with regard to reservations for Other Backward Classes, or OBCs - was "surprising" and "prima facie erroneous", the Supreme Court said Monday morning.
The Supreme Court stayed the High Court order and issued a notice on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's government's plea, and said it would hear the matter after two weeks.
"This is surprising. We will issue notice in this. How can the High Court order a stay? Reservation is a part of the functions of the Executive. Since Indira Sawhney (referring to the landmark 1992 case that focused on reservations for OBCs) the Supreme Court has said this."
At first the bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai considered placing this hearing before a different bench of the Calcutta High Court, but ultimately listed matter after two weeks.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Bengal government, mentioned this matter before Chief Justice Gavai. "A writ petition was filed... challenging the new list, saying we have to legislate it, which is contrary to all judgements," he said.
To this the Chief Justice stressed that "right from (the Indira Sawhney judgement) the position is that the Executive can do (this)".
Mr Sibal also asked for a contempt petition that had been filed in the High Court be stayed. "Let the matter get listed," the Chief Justice said.
Mamata Banerjee's government had moved the top court against the High Court's order last month staying the new list of OBCs.
A division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, in an interim stay till July 31, directed that executive notifications between May 8 and June 13 with regard to OBC categories made by the state government will not be given effect to till that date.
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.
