The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed proceedings before the Calcutta High Court in a case about the preparation of a fresh list of Other Backward Classes by the West Bengal government, The Hindu reported.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai was hearing a petition filed by the state government against an order of the High Court in May 2024 quashing the classification of 77 communities as OBCs under the state Backward Classes Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts Act, 2012, Live Law reported.

Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the state government, told the bench that the High Court intended to hear the matter despite the fact that the matter was in the Supreme Court, The Hindu reported.

“We need a stay,” Sibal said. “The HC says it will continue hearing the whole matter and decide the case finally.”

Gavai questioned the “anxiety” of the High Court to hear the case and asked: “When the Supreme Court is seized of the matter, how can the HC hear the case?”

The bench then posted the matter after four weeks, while also clarifying that the High Court should not proceed with the hearing until further orders.

The West Bengal government’s previous list of OBCs had 113 sub-groups, of which 77 were Muslims and 36 non-Muslims. However, the High Court had in May 2024 struck down the list, and had reduced OBC reservations from 17% to 7%.

The High Court had then cancelled all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010, saying that religion was the “sole criterion for declaring these communities” under the category. Nearly five lakh certificates were likely to be affected.

At the time, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that her Trinamool Congress government in the state would not accept the High Court’s judgement and the OBC reservation would continue in the state as it existed.

The state government challenged the judgement in the Supreme Court.

In June, the West Bengal government issued a notification adding 76 sub-castes to the OBC category, taking the total number of communities in the grouping to 140.

Out of these, 80 communities were from among Muslims, while 60 were from among non-Muslims, The Indian Express reported. Muslims comprise 57.1% of the population included in the OBC category.

The new list would allow the state government to restore OBC reservations to 17%.

Later that month, however, the High Court stayed the implementation of the notification classifying 140 communities as OBCs.

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