Calcutta High Court Annuls OBC Certificates Issued in West Bengal Since 2010

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday invalidated all Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010. The decision came from a division bench comprising Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, following a PIL that questioned the legitimacy of the OBC certification process post-2010.

The court directed the preparation of a new OBC list as per the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act of 1993, declaring the OBC list post-2010 “illegal.” Sections of the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012 were also struck down as “unconstitutional.”

Advocate Sudipta Dasgupta explained that the PIL, filed in 2011, argued that OBC certificates issued after 2010 bypassed the 1993 Act, denying rightful beneficiaries their due. Consequently, all such certificates from 2010 to 2024 have been annulled, though existing beneficiaries in service or selection processes remain unaffected.

The court upheld the classification of 66 OBC categories recognized before 2010, as these were not contested in the petitions.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has rejected the verdict, attributing it to BJP influence and asserting that OBC reservations would continue. She emphasized that earlier surveys justified the reservations and criticized the BJP for allegedly instigating constitutional issues.

Banerjee further claimed that the BJP’s actions could harm minority reservations and accused them of using agencies for political purposes.