All OBC certificates issued after 2010 in Bengal cancelled: Calcutta high court.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she will not accept the verdict which was a BJP conspiracy and OBC reservation would continue. The Calcutta high court on Wednesday cancelled all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010. Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool government came to power in the state in 2011. Hence, the order is effective on all the OBC certificates issued under the Mamata government. Mamata Banerjee said it was a BJP conspiracy and she does not accept the order. “The OBC reservation quota introduced by the West Bengal government will continue. We had drafted the Bill after conducting a house-to-house survey, and it was passed by the cabinet and the assembly,” she said. “The BJP has conspired to stall it by using central agencies. How can the saffron party show such audacity?” the TMC boss said. Passing judgment on petitions challenging the provisions of the Act, the court 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. The judgment will impact a sizeable number of people in the state, according to a lawyer involved in the matter. The court struck down several classes for reservation as Other Backward Classes (OBC) given under The West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012. In the judgement, the division bench comprising justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha clarified that the executive orders of the state government classifying 66 classes of OBC before 2010 were not interfered with, since these were not challenged in the petitions. The bench directed that the state’s executive orders classifying 42 classes as OBCs from March 5, 2010, to May 11, 2012, were also quashed, with prospective effect, in view of the illegality of the reports recommending such classification. The bench said that the opinion and advice of the Backward Classes Commission is ordinarily binding on the state legislature under the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993. The bench directed the Backward Classes Welfare Department of the state, in consultation with the Commission, to place a report before the legislature with recommendations for inclusion of new classes or for exclusion of remaining classes in the state list of OBCs.