On Tuesday, the West Bengal government informed the Supreme Court that it would carry out a new process to identify Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the state, promising to complete it within three months. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the state, presented this assurance before a two-judge bench led by Justice BR Gavai. The bench is currently hearing West Bengal's appeal against the Calcutta High Court's May 2024 ruling, which struck down the state’s decision to grant OBC status to 77 communities, most of whom are Muslim, making them eligible for reservation benefits.

“The West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes has informed the West Bengal government that it would conduct the benchmark survey on communities who have applied to the Commission for inclusion in the OBC list of the state,” Sibal made his remarks to the bench, which also included Justice AG Masih.

The court granted his request and postponed the case for three months, scheduling it to be revisited in July. Justice Gavai stated: “If the entire exercise is redone, and after that, fresh reservation is provided for, and nobody is aggrieved, then this question will become academic.”

The bench said in its order: “Mr Sibal…states that the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes is undertaking an exercise of examining the issue of backwardness afresh. He further submits that the same will likely take 3 months. Post the matter in July. Needless to say, the said exercise would be without prejudice to the rights of either of the parties.”

In May 2024, the Calcutta High Court struck down the OBC certificates issued by the state since 2010, stating that “religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion” for granting OBC status to particular communities. The court further remarked, “The selection of 77 classes of Muslims as backwards is an affront to the Muslim community as a whole.”

In August 2024, the Supreme Court issued a notice in the case, directing the Mamata Banerjee-led state government to submit an affidavit “explaining the process followed for classification of 77 communities as OBCs: (1) the nature of survey (and) (2) whether there was a lack of consultation with the Commission (state backward panel) in respect of any communities in the list of 77 communities designated as OBCs”. During a hearing on the state's appeal in December last year, Justice Gavai made an oral observation, stating that “reservation cannot be on the basis of religion.”