Jaipur, May 26: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Rajasthan is considering a review of the status of 14 Muslim groups listed under the Other Backward Castes (OBC) category. This review is slated to take place after the results of the Lok Sabha election scheduled on June 4.
The state’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister indicated that the legality of the inclusion of these Muslim communities in the OBC list from 1997 to 2013 would be scrutinized. “We will examine after June 4 if the inclusion of these communities in the OBC list was legal or illegal,” a Times of India report quoted Minister Avinash Gehlot as saying.
This development follows a recent Calcutta High Court ruling, which struck down several classes designated as OBC under a 2012 West Bengal Act. The court deemed these classifications illegal based on petitions challenging the Act’s provisions. However, the ruling clarified that the employment and benefits already secured by individuals from the invalidated classes would remain unaffected.
The court specifically invalidated multiple classes listed for reservation under The West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012.
The division bench, comprising justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha, noted that the state government’s executive orders classifying 66 classes as OBC before 2010 were not challenged in the petitions and therefore remained unaffected.
