The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the West Bengal government to file its response to a plea challenging a Calcutta High Court ruling that declared Other Backward Class (OBC) certificates issued by the State on the strength of notifications issued in May-June 2025 invalid.
A Bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana today heard a batch of petitions on the issue.
The petitioners' counsel today also requested the Court to stay an ongoing recruitment for constables, which could be affected by the Court's verdict in the case. The Court refused to pass any such order of stay.
Instead, the Court directed that any appointments made pursuant to the recruitment would remain subject to the final outcome of the case. It further directed that the appointment letters issued to selected candidates must specifically carry a condition to this effect.
The case before the Supreme Court concerns the OBC reservation framework in West Bengal, which has witnessed a series of changes after a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment.
In May 2024, the Calcutta High Court had struck down the then-TMC-led State government's move to include several classes in the OBC list through executive orders issued between 2010 and 2012.
The High Court found that the reservation was carried out without a proper survey and that the identification of many backward classes appeared to be based on religion. According to reports, 80 of the communities were Muslim.
The Court also struck down the State's sub-classification of OBCs into OBC-A (77 classes) and OBC-B (37 classes) and a provision for distributing 17 per cent reservation between the two categories.
The State subsequently issued a series of notifications in May and June 2025 introducing a new OBC reservation policy.
This was also challenged before the High Court. On June 17, 2025, the Calcutta High Court stayed the operation of these notifications and consequential steps. It held that the State could not use executive notifications to make changes that were inconsistent with its earlier May 2024 judgment and the statutory framework.
The State government, led by then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of the TMC, challenged the June 2025 order before the Supreme Court. The apex court, in turn, stayed the High Court's June 2025 order in July 2025. Consequently, the State's May-June 2025 notifications were temporarily revived.
The State also challenged the May 2024 judgment.
However, after a regime change earlier this year, with a BJP government led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari coming to power in West Bengal, the State withdrew all its appeals in the matter.
Meanwhile, a candidate who was denied the benefit of her OBC-A certificate for the Joint Entrance Test for Nursing, Paramedical and Allied Sciences Undergraduate Courses (JENPAS-UG) moved the High Court for relief.
On August 12 this year, the High Court noted that the candidate's OBC certificate dated April 13, 2026 had been issued under executive notifications issued between May and June 2025, which were prima facie found to be void in the June 17, 2025 order.
The Court also pointed out that since the State has now withdrawn its appeal against the June 2025 order, the earlier stay on all May-June 2025 notifications has been revived.
Moreover, the Court observed that on May 18 this year, the State government issued a notification withdrawing all the OBC-reservation related notifications issued by the TMC regime between May 8 and June 12, 2025.
The Court, therefore, declined to give the candidate before it any relief. Pertinently, it also clarified that no OBC certificate issued under the May-June 2025 executive notifications is valid.
"It is, therefore, found that all OBC certificates issued by the State between 8th May, 2025 and 12th June, 2025 and those certificates that were issued in the interregnum between 10th June, 2025 and 18th May, 2026 would also be of no consequence and void ab initio," the Court held.
This order has now been challenged before the Supreme Court by several petitioners, although they were not party to the Calcutta High Court proceedings.
The Court today sought the West Bengal's response on the plea filed by these petitioners.
Senior Advocate Shadan Farasat appeared for the petitioners.
Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy appeared in a connected matter.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the State of West Bengal.
[Read Live Coverage]