Supreme Court pauses Calcutta HC’s interim order staying West Bengal’s OBC list

Hearing the state’s appeal challenging the high court order, Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, presiding over a three-judge bench wondered how the stay could have been granted. “This is surprising. How can the high court stay like this? Reservation is part of the Executive functions. Right from Indira Sawhney, the position is that the Executive can do it. We are surprised at the high court’s reasoning,” he said.

Appearing for the respondents, Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar said that even as per the law enacted by the state, the legislature has to approve the list. Senior Advocate Guru Krishnakumar, who also appeared for respondents, contended that the new list was drawn up without any data to back it up.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, urged the bench to stay the high court order, saying there are lakhs of posts to be filled. The senior counsel said the State Backward Classes Commission had drawn up the new OBC list on the basis of a fresh survey and that the high court too had not said that the Commission had not done the exercise.

“The Commission has done that exercise… Whole exercise has been done, that is not challenged, that is not the finding of the high court when staying this matter,” said Sibal.

The court said that if the parties are willing, it will ask the high court to hear the matter within a stipulated time, and the status quo will remain till then. The apex court then went on to stay the high court order, terming it “totally erroneous”.

The Calcutta High Court had in May 2024 struck down the OBC status of several classes — 77 classes of reservation given between April 2010 and September 2010, and 37 classes were created based on the state’s Reservation Act of 2012 — finding such reservations illegal.

Staying the new list, the high court noted that the notification was issued by the state before the report was tabled before the legislature.