West Bengal Assembly Passes Two OBC Bills, Removes 77 Muslim Communities from Reservation List – Full Details | Today’s news
The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on June 29 passed two bills amending the former Trinamool Congress-era law of 2012 regarding class reservations in the OBC category in the state amid a strike by a section of rebel TMC MLAs led by Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee.
The two proposed laws formally amend the OBC reservation laws and remove various Muslim communities from the OBC lists as directed by the Calcutta High Court in May 2024.
Read also | The Bengal Assembly passed the anti-goonda bill by a vote of 176-41
Bills – West Bengal Backward Classes (other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2026 – granted reservation to 66 classes under the quota structure at 17 per cent from the earlier 7 per cent, while the earlier adjustment as per the guidelines Calcutta High Court, apart from reorganization of OBC categories.
The amendments also revised the reservation quota for OBCs from 10% to 7% and reorganized the OBC categories. Now the Act of 1993 has also been amended which covers the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes.
What is changing now?
The previous Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in Bengal revised the list of OBCs first to 113 sub-groups with 77 Muslim and 36 Hindu sub-groups.
However, in 2025, the Calcutta High Court struck it down. The government then revised it to 140 subgroups, which had 77 Muslim but 63 Hindu subgroups. The High Court stayed it, but the Supreme Court lifted the stay. Now the OBC classification has reverted back to the pre-Trinamool 66 OBC subgroups.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has repeatedly alleged that the TMC government has disproportionately extended OBC benefits to Muslim communities while overlooking several socially and educationally backward Hindu groups.
In May, days after it first came to power in Bengal, the BJP government led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari revoked the OBC status of 77 Muslim communities during the TMC regime and reduced the reservation quota for all OBCs to 7%.
After the amendments, as many as 77 Muslim communities have been removed from the OBC list, while several others remain eligible for reservation.
The Muslim communities retained in the new OBC list include Jolah (Ansari Momin), Fakir, Pahadia Muslim, Hajjam (Muslim) and Chowduli (Muslim).
The 77 communities removed include Muslim Nehariya, Muslim Haldar, Muslim Sanpui, Muslim Mali, Ghosi (Muslim), Muslim Darji/Ostagar/Idrisi, Muslim Rajmistri, Muslim Batiyara, Muslim Molla, Dhali (Muslim) and many others.
What happened at the Bengal assembly?
As many as 186 MLAs voted in favor of the bills on Monday, while 17 voted against them during the Bengal Assembly polls.
Six members abstained. The division of votes was ordered by Speaker Rathindra Bose at the request of ISF MLA Nawsad Siddiqui, who along with rebel TMC MLA Biswanath Das opposed the laws on the grounds of violating social justice for the backward classes and pressed for their reference to a select committee.
Several TMC members, owing allegiance to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led group, walked out of the House ahead of the vote. However, the group, out of loyalty to Mamata Banerjee, remained in the House and participated in the vote on the amendment.
Read also | What is the proposed West Bengal anti-goonda law?
Minister of State for Backward Classes Development Gourishankar Ghosh, while introducing the bills, said the government had acted in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directions and said there were no political motives behind the amendments.
“We have removed 113 classes included earlier without conducting any field survey, leaving 66 sub-classes which were included after various surveys,” Ghosh told the House of Representatives.
“The Backward Classes Commission will conduct an inquiry and if it feels that any community should be included, it can make recommendations for the state government’s consideration. The previous government bypassed the Commission and that is why the High Court blocked the process,” he said.
What was the Calcutta HC judgment of May 2024?
In a May 2024 judgment, the Calcutta High Court canceled the OBC status and certificates issued to 77 other communities that were primarily added between 2010 and 2012, declaring the inclusion illegal and unconstitutional.
The verdict canceled around 12 million OBC certificates issued after 2010 while protecting the positions of individuals who had already secured employment through the quota. The court ruled that certificates issued before 2010 remain valid.
On May 19, the state government ended religion-based categorization schemes and legalized 66 communities that were included in the state’s OBC reservation list before 2010, restoring their eligibility for the seven percent quota.
A notification issued by the state welfare department for backward classes said that these communities falling under one category and three of them being Muslims will now be eligible for seven per cent reservation in government services and posts.
The current regularization replaced the earlier system that allocated 10 percent reservations in category A, designated as “more backward,” and seven percent in category B, called “backward.”
Monday’s amendments — while empowering the state government to determine the percentage of reservations for various categories of OBCs after consulting the Commission — gave legal sanction to the move by the state cabinet.
The percentage of reserved seats may be revised periodically against the reserved quota, but the total reservation will not exceed 50 percent, the amended bill said, according to a PTI report.
Read also | UCC to be implemented in Bengal, says CM Suvendu Adhikari
After consultation with the Commission, the State Government will be empowered to classify OBC citizens into different categories based on their degree of social and educational backwardness. Reservation in contributions will then be provided separately for each category, he added.
The bill amending the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act of 1993 states that citizens will be able to apply for inclusion in the OBC list. The Commission will consider such applications and make recommendations to the State Government.
We removed 113 classes included earlier without conducting any field survey, leaving 66 subclasses that were included after various surveys.
Grievances may also be filed regarding over- or under-inclusion of any section in the OBC list. In such cases, the government will act in accordance with the commission’s recommendations. The term of office of the members of the commission will be three years, but the term of office of the member-secretary, who would be an incumbent civil servant, will be decided by the government.
