Supreme Court To Hear Bengal’s OBC Sub-Categorisation Plea On July 28

The Supreme Court will hear the West Bengal government’s plea on July 28 regarding the inclusion of sub-categories in the Other Backwards Classes (OBC) reservation list.

Kapil Sibal Urges Early Hearing

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the West Bengal government, requested an urgent hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.

Sibal informed the court that a contempt petition has also been filed in connection with the matter.

He argued that a writ petition had wrongly suggested the need to enact a law for the OBC classification, contradicting established judicial precedents.

Responding to Sibal, the Chief Justice cited the landmark Indra Sawhney judgment, which had clarified that the executive has the authority to identify OBCs, a principle already established in law.

The West Bengal government had prepared a new OBC list in May 2024 after the Calcutta High Court struck down the inclusion of 77 communities from the earlier list.

The state had previously informed the Supreme Court of its intent to revise the OBC classification following the High Court’s ruling.

High Court Had Stayed the Implementation of the New List

The Calcutta High Court had imposed an interim stay on the revised list, which expanded from 113 to 140 categories, including 76 new sub-categories.

The new categorisation featured 80 Muslim and 60 non-Muslim groups.

The West Bengal Assembly presented the updated OBC-A and OBC-B lists on June 10.

The state government filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s interim order.

The apex court will now determine whether the government can implement the updated classification aimed at sub-categorising OBC reservations.

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