New Delhi, 20 Aug: The West Bengal government on Tuesday sought an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court of its appeal against the Calcutta High Court verdict striking down the OBC status of several castes, mostly Muslim groups, in the state for granting them reservation in public sector jobs and admissions in state-run educational institutions.
\nThe top court said it will hear the pleas on the issue on August 27.
\nSenior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state government, told a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the high court verdict needed to be stayed as it was affecting the admission of candidates who have cleared the NEET-UG, 2024.
\n\u201cWe need a stay of the high court\u2019s verdict\u2026 the issue of scholarships is pending and the NEET admissions will be effected,\u201d Sibal said, adding that the plea be heard during the day.
\nA counsel, representing the state\u2019s Other Backward Classes (OBC) panel, said students are lining up for authentication of their OBC status for securing admissions to medical colleges and other institutions.
\n\u201cWe will hear it on Tuesday (August 27),\u201d the CJI said.
\nThe top court had on August 5 asked the state government to provide quantifiable data on social and economic backwardness of fresh castes it has included in the OBC list and on their inadequate representation in public sector jobs.
\nWhile issuing notices to the private litigants on the plea of the state government against the high court verdict, it had asked West Bengal to file an affidavit giving details of the consultations, if any, made by it and the state\u2019s backward classes panel before including 37 castes, mostly Muslim groups, in the OBC list.
\nThe high court had on May 22 struck down the OBC status of several castes in West Bengal granted since 2010, holding as illegal the reservation for them in public sector jobs and state-run educational institutions. While striking down the OBC status of these castes, the high court had said, \u201cReligion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion\u201d for declaring these communities as OBCs.
\nThe high court had said that it is of the view that the selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backwards is an \u201caffront to the Muslim community as a whole.\u201d Maintaining that this court\u2019s mind is not free from doubt that \u201cthe said community (Muslims) has been treated as a commodity for political ends,\u201d the bench had said, \u201cThis is clear from the chain of events that led to the classification of the 77 classes as OBCs and their inclusion to be treated as a vote bank.\u201d Passing the judgment on petitions challenging the provisions of the state\u2019s reservation Act of 2012 and reservations granted in 2010, the high court had clarified that the services of citizens of the struck-down classes, who are already in service or have availed the benefit of reservation or have succeeded in any selection process of the state, will not be affected by the order.
\nThe high court also struck down 37 classes chosen for grant of reservation as OBC under The West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012.
\nWhile the court had scrapped the 77 classes over \u201cillegality\u201d of reports recommending such classification, other 37 classes were removed from the OBC list for non-consultation by the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission.
\nThe bench had also struck down an executive order of May 11, 2012 creating several sub-classes.
\nThe high court ruled that the directions will take effect prospectively. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 20 Aug: The West Bengal government on Tuesday sought an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court of its appeal against the Calcutta High Court verdict striking down the OBC status of several castes, mostly Muslim groups, in the state for granting them reservation in public sector jobs and admissions in state-run educational institutions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-246805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}