The Bengal government on Monday passed a bill to implement the Calcutta High Court order that had struck down the inclusion of several sub-castes in the category of Other Backward Classes (OBC) after 2010.

With the new law, the number of OBC sub-castes and the percentage of their reservation went to the pre-2010 position.

“This bill is introduced to implement Calcutta High Court order passed on May 22, 2024. This is not to deprive any community or sub-castes (of any benefits). If the Commission for Backward Classes recommends the inclusion of any sub-caste in the OBC category, the government would consider it by following all guidelines,” said Gauri Sankar Ghosh, the backward classes welfare minister, in his reply in the House on Monday.

In 1993, there were 66 sub-castes in the OBC category. Of them, 54 were Hindu and 12 were Muslim sub-castes. The Left Front government had included another 42 sub-castes in the OBC category and enhanced OBC reservation from 7 per cent to 17 per cent.

The minister also said that the Left Front had included 41 Muslim sub-castes (out of the 42 added in 2010) in the OBC category and enhanced the OBC reservation by 10 percent to woo minority voters. The Trinamool Congress government in 2012 included several more sub-castes, mostly Muslims, in the OBC category. With the inclusion of sub-castes during the Trinamool regime, the total number of additional sub-castes reached 113 over and above the original 66 sub-castes.

“The Calcutta High Court had struck down the inclusion of all these 113 sub-castes in the OBC category, citing that due process was not followed. We are implementing the order,” said the minister.

Sources also said that as the bill was passed in the House today, the OBC reservation went back to the pre-2010 position.

“This means the OBC reservation in the state will now be 7 per cent, instead of 17 per cent, and the number of sub-castes in the category would be 66, not 179,” said an official.

The Opposition MLAs, however, raised questions about whether the Act would curtail the scope of OBC students and job seekers across the state.

“Given that the population is increasing, we should have increased the OBC reservation. But here we are cutting it down. We should follow states like Tamil Nadu where reservation for different categories has surpassed 50 per cent,” said Nawsad Siddiqui, the ISF MLA of Bhangar.