KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday rejected OBC certificates issued during the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal.
A division bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and Justice Anuj Singha directed that there would be no categorisation of OBCs into OBC-A and OBC-B, rendering certificates issued under the previous government invalid.
Those who had already received these certificates will be considered under the “general category” or “unreserved category”, the court directed while issuing the order.
The High Court's directive could affect those relying on the certificates for education and government jobs.
OBCs had been categorised into two classes — OBC-A and OBC-B. There had been serious controversy over OBC certificates after the Trinamool Congress came to power in Bengal in 2011, with allegations of corruption involving the issuance of such certificates.
The Calcutta High Court, while delivering its judgment in a case in 2024, had struck down as illegal the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010, sparking a political debate in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections.
The court had observed that the inclusion of 66 classes of Muslims in the list of backward categories was to “treat them as a vote bank”.
One petitioner, Amal Chandra Das, had moved the High Court in 2023, accusing the Trinamool government of issuing a huge number of fake OBC certificates since coming to power in the state.
The case subsequently went to a division bench, which in May 2024 cancelled all OBC certificates granted after 2010. The High Court had, however, allowed OBC reservation benefits given before 2010 to continue for 66 sub-castes.
The High Court's order was challenged by the Bengal government in the Supreme Court, which stayed the High Court's order on the state's decision to increase the number of OBC sub-castes from 66 to 142.
The state government had conducted a new survey and changed the OBC lists, introducing the OBC-A and OBC-B categories. A petition was subsequently filed again in the High Court challenging the categorisation.
It was alleged that the survey had been conducted among only 2,500 people and that 142 sub-castes were consequently included in the OBC lists.
The case reached the Supreme Court again, but it did not stay the new OBC list.