look news india
After the major political change in West Bengal, the state government has taken a very important legal decision. The government has withdrawn its main appeal filed in the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court decision revoking the status of 77 communities from the Other Backward Class (OBC) list. During the hearing in the country’s top court on Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta officially clarified that the state cabinet has approved the withdrawal of this appeal. Soon after this, the State Backward Classes Commission also withdrew its separate petition, which was accepted by the court.
Why did the state government change its stance?
This entire controversy is related to the order of Calcutta High Court dated May 22, 2024, in which the court had canceled the reservation status of 77 communities included in the OBC list of the state. The then Mamata Banerjee government had challenged this decision in the country’s sovereign court. Now after the change of power in the state, the new cabinet has completely changed its stand on this policy. A special bench of Chief Justice (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohan allowed both the state government and the Backward Classes Commission to withdraw their petitions.
Why did Calcutta High Court cancel the reservation of 77 communities?
The Calcutta High Court, in its judgment given in the year 2024, had declared as illegal the reservation of 77 communities added to the OBC list between April 2010 and September 2010, which included 75 Muslim communities. Apart from this, the Court had also completely repealed the reservation of 37 other classes included in the OBC category under the West Bengal Backward Classes Act, 2012. The court’s strong stance was that only ‘religion’ was made the main basis for granting a place to these communities in the OBC list, which is against the basic structure of the Indian Constitution and is completely unconstitutional.
Supreme Court left the door open for the affected parties
Even though the West Bengal government has withdrawn from this case, the Supreme Court has made it clear that its order will not come in the way of other affected parties. During the hearing, senior advocate Shadan Farasat, on behalf of some affected citizens and groups, sought permission to pursue their separate petitions, which was accepted by the court. The top court clearly said that if any other affected party wants to continue the legal battle against the High Court decision, he is free to do so. Let us tell you that earlier on 6 November 2024, the Supreme Court had stayed further proceedings on the decision of the High Court and at that time a total of 10 petitions were being heard simultaneously.