The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine Bengal’s plea challenging Calcutta High Court’s July 17 order that stayed the state’s classification of 140 sub-castes as Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

A bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Vinod Chandran said the matter would be listed on July 28 following an appeal from senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the state, for an urgent hearing.

Sibal asked how the high court could stay the notification on the OBC classification, particularly when the state had carried out a fresh survey after withdrawing the
earlier notification.

“We had brought the issue up. Then, thereafter, we withdrew that. We followed the Calcutta High Court decision and carried out the sub-classification again,” Sibal said, adding that another writ petition was filed, following which the high court again, on July 17, stayed the notification till July 31.

He wondered how the petitioner could ask the high court to legislate on an issue which is purely in the executive domain.

The fresh notification by the Bengal government was stayed by a division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha on a writ petition filed by NGO Atmadeep.

“We will have it listed next week,” the CJI said, indicating that it would be taken up
on Monday.