‘State of West Bengal acting in hot haste, reintroducing struck-down reservations; Calcutta High Court stays OBC reclassification

Calcutta High Court: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed seeking to restrain the State of West Bengal and its instrumentalities from implementing a fresh benchmark survey and issuing notifications for classification and reservation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in alleged violation of the Calcutta High Court’s earlier judgment dated 22-05-2024, which had struck down the identification of 77 OBC classes and held that only the State Legislature, not the Executive, could exercise such powers under the 2012 Act. A Division Bench of Rajasekhar Mantha and Tapabrata Chakraborty, JJ., directed that multiple executive notifications relating to sub-categorisation of OBCs and enhanced reservation be stayed till the end of July 2025 or until further orders.

A batch of writ petitions arose in the wake of a significant judgment dated 22-05-2024 of the Calcutta High Court, wherein the classification of 77 classes as Other Backward Classes (OBCs) by the State of West Bengal was invalidated. The State challenged the verdict before the Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP), but no stay was granted on the operation of the High Court’s decision. Thus, alleging violation of that judgment, contempt petitions were also filed and are currently pending.

Despite the pendency of contempt proceedings and absence of a stay, the State and various educational institutions issued notifications and continued administrative actions which led to the filing of the present writ petitions specifically challenging several steps taken by the State, including the initiation of a benchmark survey and certain official communications issued in February and March 2025 by the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes and the District Welfare Officer.

Previously, on 27-11-2024, the Court had directed the State to submit a report affirming compliance with the May 2024 judgment. In response, the State filed an affidavit stating that “all appointments have been stopped or deferred” pending decision in the SLP. Subsequently, the matter was taken up on 06-05-2025. At that stage, the Commission expressed willingness to conduct a fresh survey for identification of all backward classes in the State, following which the Court directed publication of advertisements regarding the proposed survey and sought a compliance affidavit by 19-06-2025. While these directions were pending compliance, the petitioners, through application, sought urgent hearing and a stay on the survey.

The Court observed that the State had acted in undue haste and through executive fiat sought to undo what had been struck down judicially. It reiterated that the judgment of 22-05-2024 required legislative, not executive, action for inclusion of classes into the OBC list or amendment of reservation percentages. It reaffirmed that any such inclusion had to be placed before the Legislature for proper statutory enactment.

The Court remarked that “prima facie, it appears that the respondents are proceeding in hot haste and are attempting to bring in the self-same classes and to re-introduce the percentage of reservation, which have been struck down by this Court, by executive orders and not in exercise of State’s legislative functions and that too before we can scrutinize the steps taken by the Commission in terms of our earlier order dated 06-05-2025.”

Accordingly, the Court stayed in the operation of all impugned notifications along with all consequential actions, till the end of July 2025 or until further orders, whichever is earlier. The petitioners were permitted to file reply to affidavits within two weeks, with the State and the Commission given similar timelines to file counter affidavits. The matter was posted for further hearing on 24-07-2025.

[Amal Chandra Das v. State of West Bengal, WPA (P) 111 of 2025 With IA No. CAN 1 of 2025, decided on 17-06-2025]

Advocates who appeared in this case:

For the Petitioners in WPA(P) 111/2025 & WPA(P) 430/2025:

Mr. S. Sriram, Sr. Adv., Mr. Subir Sanyal, Sr. Adv., Mr. Samir Pal, Ms. Debjani Ray, Mr. Kabir Sankar Bose, Mr. Amit Mishra, Mr. Bikram Banerjee, Mr. Sudipta Dasgupta, Mr. Arijit Bakshi, Ms. Mitakshara Goyal, Mr. Saaketh Kasibhata, Mr. Baibhav Ray, Ms. Sinjini Chakrabarti

For the Petitioners in WPA(P) 119/2025 & WPA(P) 430/2025:

Mr. Subir Sanyal, Sr. Adv., Mr. Supratic Roy, Mr. Sudipta Roy, Mr. Shuvajit Roy

For the Petitioners in WPA(P) 132/2025:

Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, Sr. Adv., Ms. Debjani Ray, Mr. Siddesh Kotwal, Mr. Bikram Banerjee, Mr. Sudipta Dasgupta, Ms. Vaidehi Kohle, Ms. Sinjini Chakrabarti, Mr. Baibhav Roy

For the State Respondents in WPA(P) 111/2025 & WPA(P) 119/2025:

Mr. Kishore Dutta, Ld. Advocate General, Ms. Priyamvada Singh

For the State Commission in WPA(P) 119/2025 & WPA(P) 132/2025:

Mr. Abhratosh Majumder, Sr. Adv., Mr. Debanjan Mandal, Mr. Sandip Dasgupta, Mr. Deepan Kr. Sarkar, Mr. Aviroop Mitra, Ms. Mahima Cholera, Ms. Deepti Priya

For Jadavpur University in WPA(P) 430/2025 & WPA(P) 387/2025:

Mr. Soumya Majumder, Sr. Adv., Ms. Sanjukta Dutta

For the Secretary, WB Comparative Service Commission in WPA(P) 119/2025:

Mr. Amitava Choudhury, Mr. Ananta Das

For the UoI / National Commission for Backward Classes (in all writ petitions):

Mr. Ashok Kr. Chakraborty, Ld. Addl. Solicitor General, Mr. Rajdeep Mazumdar, Ld. DSGI, Mr. Kumar Jyoti Tewari, Sr. Adv., Ms. Amrita Pandey, Mr. G. Pandey, Ms. Sneha Singh

For Respondent No. 8:

Mr. Niladri Bhattacharya, Ms. Deblina Chattaraj

For Respondent No. 9:

Mr. Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, Sr. Adv.

For the High Court Administration in WPA(P) 132/2025:

Mr. Utpal Bose, Sr. Adv., Mr. Victor Chatterjee

For the Public Service Commission (PSC):

Ms. Piyali Sengupta, Mr. Victor Chatterjee

For Sidho Kanho Birsha University:

Ms. Sumita Shaw, Mr. Saugata Mitra, Mr. Nikhil Kr. Gupta, Mr. Soumen Chatterjee, Ms. Soma Chakraborty