ALL OBC STATUS GIVEN BY MAMATA GOVT VOID: HC

The verdict is set to affect 5 lakh OBC certificates.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

In a stinging blow to the Mamata Banerjee Government in the middle of the election season, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday cancelled all Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010.

A division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha delivered the verdict in a plea challenging the process of granting OBC certificates in the state. The verdict is set to affect 5 lakh OBC certificates.

The Court said: “A class is declared as OBC not only because it is backward, based on scientific and identifiable data, but also on the basis of such class being inadequately represented in the services under the State. Such inadequacy is required to be assessed vis-a-vis the population as a whole including other unreserved classes. However, the pro format published by the Commission and as annexed to the writ petition (WP No.60 of 2011) does not conform to the provisions of the 1993 Act. There are deficiencies galore in the said pro forma. State Commission acted in undue haste to notify certain religious communities as OBCs in 2010.”

The court clarified that those who had attained employment on the benefit of the Act and were already in service because of such reservation would not be affected by the order.