Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered an interim stay on the Mamata Banerjee government’s June 8 notification classifying 140 sub-castes as Other Backward Classes (OBC) that had been issued in response to an earlier court order cancelling all OBC certificates issued by the state after 2010.

The division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha issued the interim stay till July 31. The bench will next hear the case on July 24.

Legal experts said the interim order would affect admissions to higher educational institutions and recruitment processes initiated by the state.

“The state government had hurriedly issued the notification to expedite the admission process in colleges where OBC quotas have been fixed at 17 per cent,” a senior high court advocate said.

The advocate added: “Those included in the fresh list will no longer be eligible to apply under the OBC quota because of today’s order”.

Petitioner Amal Chandra Das had in 2023 moved the high court accusing the Trinamool government of issuing a huge number of fake OBC certificates since coming to power in 2011. The case subsequently went to a division bench that had in May last year cancelled all OBC certificates issued after 2010. The high court had, however, allowed OBC reservation benefits given before 2010 to continue for 66 sub-castes.

The high court’s order was challenged by the Bengal government in the Supreme Court, which refused to grant a stay. The matter is pending there.

In the meantime, the state government issued a fresh notification on June 8 bringing 76 sub-castes within the OBC category. With this, the total number of OBC sub-castes reached 140.

The fresh government notification was challenged in the high court on June 12 by a nonprofit called Atmadeep through advocate S. Ram.

“The notification has been issued at a time when the issue is still pending in the apex court. The high court had found various discrepancies in issuing OBC certificates. Since the Supreme Court did not issue any stay on the high court’s order, observations by the high court in the matter prevailed,” Ram said.

“If the state is allowed to proceed with its new notification, its effect will be dangerous,” he added.

Justice Mantha asked why the state did not place its proposal to include 76 sub-castes in the OBC category on the floor of the Assembly first before issuing the notification.

“A discussion was held on the government decision in the Assembly, where the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, also participated,” state’s counsel Kalyan Banerjee told the bench.

Both Banerjee and advocate-general Kishore Datta requested the bench not to stay the notification. “Various government processes will be stopped if the court stays the notification,” Banerjee said.

However, the division bench declined the state’s plea.

Welcoming the court’s order, Adhikari said he would become a party to the case and ask why the state government claimed before the court that he had taken part in the discussions on the OBC list.

“The chief minister placed it in the House and left. I had demanded a discussion over the issue, but it was not accepted. I will be a party to the case and will ask why the licences of the state’s lawyers would not be seized,” the BJP leader said.

Senior state government officials refused to comment on the issue, saying they would study the high court order first.

“The Supreme Court will hear the case soon. We will see if the high court order can be challenged,” said an official.