Calcutta HC extends interim stay on publication of final notification on new OBC list in Bengal

Kolkata, July 24 The Calcutta High Court on Thursday extended, till August 31, its interim stay on the West Bengal government issuing the final notification for a fresh Other Backward Class (OBC) list.

The matter will come up for hearing again on August 5.

On June 17, a division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha imposed the interim stay on issuing the final notification for the fresh OBC list. The interim stay expired on Thursday, following which the matter came up for hearing.

At the end of the hearing, the division bench extended the period of the interim stay till August 31.

The fresh OBC list was supposed to include 140 communities, and the interim stay was perceived as a major blow for the state government in the matter.

The fresh survey was started by the state government following its promise made to the Supreme Court on March 18, as it heard the state government's challenge to an order of the Calcutta High Court in May 2024, scrapping all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010.

The petitioner accused the state government of entertaining applications only from those 113 OBC communities that were scrapped by the Calcutta High Court. The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, then directly accused the state government of mainly including people only from the Muslim community in the fresh list of people to be eligible for getting OBC certificates.

Incidentally, on Thursday, the West Bengal government approached the Supreme Court challenging the high court’s interim stay on the final notification for the fresh OBC list in the state. The matter will come up for hearing at the apex court on July 28.

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