The matter of giving reservation to Muslims in West Bengal has reached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has asked the Mamata government on what basis did they give OBC status to 77 Muslim castes? The Supreme Court has sought a reply from the Mamata government on this within a week.
The decision to include 77 Muslim castes in the OBC list was cancelled by the Calcutta High Court. After this, the Mamata government challenged the decision of the Calcutta High Court in the Supreme Court.
What did the Supreme Court ask?
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The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Bengal government and asked two questions. The Supreme Court said that the government will file an affidavit and explain the process of including 77 castes in the OBC list.
The first question asked by the Supreme Court is whether the Backward Commission was not consulted before including 77 castes in the OBC list? And the second question asked is whether the government had any consultation before sub-classifying the OBCs?
The bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra also asked on what basis 77 castes were included in the OBC list?
The Supreme Court has asked the Mamata government to file an affidavit within a week. The next hearing in this case will now be held on August 16.
What argument did the government put forward?
Senior advocate Indira Jaising presented arguments on behalf of Mamata government. Referring to the decision of Calcutta High Court, Indira Jaising said, does the court want to run the state?
Indira Jaisingh argued in the Supreme Court that why is all this happening? Because all these people are Muslims? We have one report after another, which shows that all this was considered. The parameters of the Mandal Commission were followed. The state government wants to run the state, but if the court wants to run it, then let it run.
Indira Jaising claimed that now there is no reservation for OBCs in West Bengal. We cannot live in a situation where there is no reservation for OBCs, while their population in the state is 39%.
At the same time, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi opposed their arguments and said that including these castes in the OBC list is a ‘fraud’. He said that this is a very serious matter, where the benefit of quota was given without any study.
On this, the Supreme Court bench asked whether there was any data on the social and economic backwardness of these castes before including them in the OBC list? The court also asked whether a study was done on the inadequate representation of these castes in government jobs before including them in the list?
What was the whole matter?
In September 2010, the Bengal government added 42 castes to the OBC list, out of which 41 were Muslim. The same year, the government sub-classified the OBC list. After this, all castes were divided into two categories. There were already 66 castes in the OBC list. After adding 42 more castes, the total became 108. The government placed 56 castes in the OBC-A (most backward) and 52 in the OBC-B (backward) category.
In 2011, it was challenged in the High Court on the grounds that the basis for inclusion of 42 castes in OBC was religion.
In May 2012, Mamata government added 35 more castes to the OBC list, out of which 34 were Muslim. This was also challenged in the High Court. In the same year, Mamata government passed a law for reservation in government jobs. Due to this, all the 77 new castes (42+35) included in the OBC list were included in Schedule 1 of this law and they got reservation. This law was also challenged in the High Court.
Why did the High Court cancel this reservation?
On 22 May this year, the Calcutta High Court cancelled all OBC certificates issued after 2010. The High Court had said that Muslims were insulted by including 77 castes in the backward class. All this was done for vote bank and electoral benefits.
The High Court had said that under the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission Act of 1993, the government is bound to take the opinion and advice of the Backward Classes Commission while preparing the OBC list.
The court also struck down a provision of the 2012 law that allowed the government to make changes to the OBC list.
However, the court had also made it clear that there would be no interference in the case of 66 castes included in the OBC list before 2010, because it was not challenged.
What was the effect of this decision?
After this decision of the Calcutta High Court, OBC certificates issued between 2010 and 2024 were cancelled. The court had also made it clear that these 77 castes cannot be given reservation benefits and given government jobs.
The court had made it clear that those who were appointed to government jobs during this period will not lose their jobs. Those who are in the recruitment process will also not be affected by this.
It is estimated that between 2010 and 2024, the state government had issued more than five lakh OBC certificates. After the High Court’s decision, the government cannot give reservation in government jobs to these 77 castes. The Mamata government had approached the Supreme Court to put an interim stay on this decision.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)