Calcutta HC to pass interim order today on plea challenging Mamata govt's fresh OBC survey pattern

Kolkata, June 17 A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Tuesday, will pass an interim order on the petition filed against the pattern of the fresh survey conducted by the West Bengal government to identify the Other Backwards Classes (OBCs) in the state.

The fresh survey was started by the state government following its promise made to the Supreme Court on March 18, while hearing a matter where the state government challenged an earlier order of the Calcutta High Court in May 2024, scrapping all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010.

On March 18, the state government also promised the apex court to complete the process of the fresh survey within the next three months. However, a petition was filed at the Calcutta High Court challenging the pattern of the fresh survey.

The petitioner accused the state government of entertaining applications only from those 113 OBC communities that were scrapped by the Calcutta High Court.

Last month, when the hearing on the petition came up at the Calcutta High Court, the division bench also raised some questions on the style of conducting the fresh survey by the state government.

The division bench also observed that if individuals genuinely eligible for getting the OBC certificates are not aware of the details of the fresh survey, they will be denied their legitimate rights, and hence, the main purpose of the fresh survey would be defeated.

It also directed the state government to make proper publicity of the fresh survey by issuing advertisements at the grassroots level, starting from village panchayats. The state government counsels, throughout the course of the hearing, had maintained that the fresh survey was conducted as per the court's directions.

To recall, in May last year, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelled all the OBC certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010, which ideally meant that all such certificates issued during the current Trinamool Congress regime in the state since 2011 stood cancelled.

Following this order from the division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, over 5,00,000 OBC certificates issued during that period stood cancelled and could not be used for enjoying the reservation quota for jobs.

The West Bengal government moved the Supreme Court on the Calcutta High Court order, and in March this year, the apex court allowed the state government to conduct a fresh survey to identify the OBCs in the state.

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