Slap on INDI's Appeasement Politics: PM Modi Welcomes HC Order on Bengal OBC Certificates

New Delhi: Welcoming the Calcutta High Court's decision to cancel OBC certificates issued after 2010, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a veiled attack on the Opposition saying that the court has slapped them.  'Aaj Court ne tamacha maara hai, yeh Khan Market gang paap ki zimmedaar hai'...(Today, the court has delivered a slap; the Khan Market gang is responsible for sin) They say that Muslims have the first right to the country's resources. These people are continuously giving government lands to the Waqf Board and asking for votes in return. These people want to reserve 15% of the country's budget for minorities. They also want to give loans from banks and government tender based on religion. These people are opposing CAA to please their vote bank...", said PM Modi while addressing a rally in West Delhi's Swarka. 

PM Modi also attacked the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, stating, “The West Bengal government inexplicably gave OBC certificates to Muslims, only for the Muslim vote bank. This vote bank politics, this politics of appeasement, is crossing every limit.”

Mamata Furious

During a poll rally in Khardah, within the Dumdum Lok Sabha constituency, Mamata Banerjee said that she won't accept the court's order. She stressed that OBC reservation would persist in the state, citing that the "Bill concerned was passed within the framework of the Constitution."  

“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, accusing the BJP of conspiration. “The BJP has conspired to stall it by using central agencies. How can the saffron party show such audacity? This is a kalankit chapter in the country” the TMC supremo said. 

Calcutta High Court Cancels Bengal's Backward Classes Certificates Issued Since 2010

Earlier in the day the Calcutta High Court struck down the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010, finding such reservations to vacancies in services and posts in the state are illegal. 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 number of enlisted persons under OBC in West Bengal after 2010 is likely to be above five lakhs, one of the lawyers representing the petitioners said. 

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.

The bench directed that the state's executive orders classifying several other classes as OBCs from March 5, 2010, to May 11, 2012, were also quashed, in view of the illegality of the reports recommending such classification. The court said that the directions will be given prospective effect.

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.

A clause in the 2012 Act allowing the inclusion of classes for OBC reservation by the state government through notification in the official gazette was also struck down.

Setting aside a provision in the Act of 2012 for distribution of the percentage of reservation to the sub-classified classes, the court said, "sub-classified classes listed in two categories, namely OBC-A and OBC-B, are struck down from schedule 1 of the Act of 2012." The bench said that the opinion and advice of the Backward Classes Commission is ordinarily binding on the state legislature under provisions of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993.

The court directed the Backward Classes Welfare Department of the state, in consultation with the Commission, to place a report before the legislature with recommendations for the inclusion of new classes or for the exclusion of remaining classes in the state list of OBCs