West Bengal Passes Bills Cutting OBC Reservation From 17% to 7%

The West Bengal Assembly has passed two Bills amending the state's Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation framework, significantly reducing the quota from 17% to 7% and cutting the number of recognised OBC sub-castes from 179 to 66. The legislation aligns with a 2024 Calcutta High Court ruling that struck down the inclusion of several communities added to the OBC list after 2010. The two amended laws seek to restore the reservation structure that existed before the expansion carried out by previous state governments.

OBC reservation was first introduced in West Bengal in 1993 with 66 recognised sub-castes, comprising 54 Hindu and 12 Muslim communities. Ahead of the 2011 Assembly elections, the then Left Front government expanded the list by adding 42 new communities through executive orders issued in 2010, 41 of which belonged to the Muslim community. This increased the reservation quota from 7% to 17%, with 10% reserved for the OBC-A category, considered the most backward groups, and the remaining 7% allocated to OBC-B.

After coming to power in 2011, the Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee further expanded the OBC list by adding more sub-castes, most of them from the Muslim community. The state government said the additions were based on recommendations and socio-economic surveys conducted by the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes. However, critics questioned the methodology of these surveys, alleging they lacked adequate empirical evidence and failed to consistently apply the creamy layer principle while identifying beneficiaries.

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The issue reached the Calcutta High Court, which on May 22, 2024, cancelled OBC certificates issued by the state since 2010 while hearing a public interest litigation challenging the validity of the 2012 reservation law. The Division Bench observed that religion appeared to have been the primary basis for granting OBC status to several communities and held that the state had bypassed the proper constitutional process for identifying backward classes. At the same time, the court clarified that individuals who had already secured jobs, admissions or other benefits using those certificates would not be affected by its ruling.

The two Bills passed by the Assembly implement the High Court's findings by removing communities added after 2010 and restoring the earlier list of 66 recognised OBC sub-castes. As a result, the reservation quota has reverted to 7%, reversing the expansion introduced first by the Left Front government and later extended by the Trinamool Congress administration. The changes come after the formation of the BJP government in West Bengal earlier this year, marking a significant policy shift in the state's reservation framework.

The amendments have once again brought the issue of reservation and backward class identification into political focus in West Bengal. Supporters of the legislation say it ensures compliance with constitutional principles and judicial directions, while opponents argue that many socially and educationally backward communities could lose reservation benefits. With the revised laws now in place, the state's OBC reservation policy has returned to its pre-2010 structure, though the issue is expected to remain a subject of legal and political debate.

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