Supreme Court Halts Calcutta High Court Proceedings on West Bengal OBC List Case

The Supreme Court on Thursday postponed the hearing in the West Bengal OBC list case for four weeks, making it clear that the Calcutta High Court must not conduct any further proceedings while the matter is before the apex court.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai, along with Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, expressed dissatisfaction with the Calcutta High Court's continuation of hearings despite prior Supreme Court directives.

"When we are seized of the matter, why should the High Court continue the proceedings?" questioned CJI Gavai's Bench, warning that if such hearings persist, the top court "may have to say that some other Bench hears the matter".

"List the matter after four weeks. We clarify that until further orders are passed, the Calcutta High Court should not proceed with further hearings," the Supreme Court ordered.

Previously, on July 28, the Supreme Court had stayed the Calcutta High Court ruling that had suspended the publication of West Bengal's revised OBC list.

The apex court had described the Calcutta HC order as both "surprising" and "prima facie erroneous," emphasizing that reservation falls firmly within the Executive's domain and does not require legislative approval.

The Supreme Court disagreed with the Calcutta High Court's position that the West Bengal government should have obtained the state Assembly's approval before introducing the new OBC list.

"How can the Calcutta High Court pass a stay like this? Reservation is part of the Executive functions. This is the settled law right from the Indira Sawhney (judgment) that the Executive can do it. Executive instructions are enough for providing reservations and legislation is not necessary," the top court had stated.

On June 17, in an interim order, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court had directed the West Bengal government not to publish the final notification for the new OBC list until July 31 this year.

A Bench comprising Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha had initially determined that the previous four to five notifications issued by the West Bengal government on the fresh survey for preparing the new OBC list violated Supreme Court orders.

The updated OBC list was intended to include 140 communities, and the interim stay was viewed as a significant setback to the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government.

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the state government argued that if the interim stay imposed by the Calcutta High Court on issuing the final notification for the fresh OBC list remained in effect until July 31, recruitment processes under this category, as previously directed by the top court, would be halted.

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