Achi news desk-
Calcutta High Court
– Photo: Amar Ojala
expansion
Amid the Lok Sabha elections, the Calcutta High Court in West Bengal canceled all OBC certificates issued by the Mamata government after 2010. In the decision, the Supreme Court canceled the reservation given to Muslims in 77 categories under OBC from April 2010 to September 2010 and 37 categories created for them under the 2012 law.
The court clarified that from the day this decision was made, the revoked certificates cannot be used in the entire employment process. Due to this, about five lakh OBC certificates will become invalid. However, the clerkship of Justice Tapunath Chakraborty and Justice Rajeshkhar Manta also said that the candidates who have already got a chance through these certificates will not be affected by the decision.
There is no mention of the Trinamool government in the resolution
The judge did not mention the Trinamool government in the judgment. Incidentally, Trinamool has been in power in the state since 2011. Hence, the court order will be valid only on OBC certificates issued by the Trinamool government. The High Court order came in the case in 2012. The bench said that all the OBC certificates made after 2010 are not in accordance with the law. The assembly has to decide who will be in the other backward classes. Fifth note on a musical scale. The Bengal Backward Classes Welfare Commission will determine the list of OBCs. The list should be sent to the legislature. Those whose names are approved by the assembly will be considered as OBCs in future.
An exercise for the vote bank
The High Court said that religion appears to be in fact the only criterion for declaring these castes as OBCs. We believe that selecting 77 categories of Muslims as backward is an insult to the entire Muslim community. The mind of the court is not free from the suspicion that this community has been treated as an object for political purposes. The series of inclusion of 77 categories in OBC and their inclusion clearly shows that it was perceived as a vote bank.
What does it matter?
In fact, the provisions of the 2012 state conservation law were challenged in court. The High Court yesterday passed orders on these petitions. A lawyer appearing for the petitioners argued that after 2010, the number of people registered under OBC in West Bengal is estimated to be more than five lakh. The Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was in power in West Bengal till May 2011 and thereafter the Trinamool Congress government came to power.
What is special about the decision?
Now the court has removed from the relevant list 37 classes who got the benefit of reservation as OBC under the West Bengal Backward Class (other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012. The court has removed 77 classes from the OBC list due to non The legality of the report recommending such classification, another 37 classes were removed due to non-consultation with the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission. The bench also quashed an executive order dated 11 May 2012, which created several sub-sections.
What about the repealed Executive Order of 2012?
A division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajashekhar Mantha, in its 211-page order, clarified that the state government’s executive orders classifying 66 categories of OBCs prior to 2010 were not interfered with as these were not filed against the petitions. The court also quashed an executive order of September 2010, which increased the OBC reservation from seven percent to 17 percent, on the grounds that the commission was not consulted. There was a provision of 10 percent reservation for category A and seven percent for category B. The bench said that the 10 percent increase in the percentage of orders was due to inclusion of categories after 2010.
What else did the court say?
The court also said that recognizing sections of the Muslim community as OBC for electoral achievements would leave them at the mercy of the respective political establishment and could deprive them of other rights. The court said that therefore such a reservation is an insult to democracy and the Constitution of India as a whole.
