The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Monday passed two bills to amend the state’s OBC reservation law, bringing changes that will impact reservations in government jobs and services. The amendment provides 7% reservation to 66 OBC communities and reorganizes the OBC categories in the state in accordance with directions issued by the Calcutta High Court.The two bills are the West Bengal Backward Classes (Except Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation in Services and Vacancies) (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2026.A total of 186 MLAs voted in favor of the bill, while 17 MPs voted against it. Six members abstained from voting. A section of rebel TMC MLAs led by Opposition Leader Ritabrata Banerjee walked out of the House ahead of the vote.Introducing the bills, Backward Class Development Minister Gurishankar Ghosh said the government was following the High Court’s directives and denied any political motivation behind the amendments.“We have deleted 113 categories that were included earlier without conducting any field survey and retained 66 sub-categories which were included after various surveys,” Ghosh told the House.He added, “The Commission for Backward Classes will conduct a probe and if it feels that any community should be included, it can make recommendations for consideration by the state government. The previous government had bypassed the Commission and that is why the High Court struck down the process.”The amendment formally approved the state government’s decision to provide 7% reservation to the 66 communities that were included in the OBC list before 2010. The amendment also allows the government to decide the reservation rate for different OBC categories after consulting the Commission for Backward Classes. However, the state’s total bookings cannot exceed 50%.Under the revised law, the government can classify the OBC community into different categories based on their degree of social and educational backwardness. Reservation for government services and jobs will be provided separately for each category.The second bill amends the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission Act, 1993. It allows citizens to apply for inclusion in the OBC list. The Committee will review such applications and recommend whether they should be accepted. People can also lodge complaints regarding over-inclusion or under-inclusion of any community in the OBC list, after which the government will take action based on the recommendations of the committee.The amendments come in the wake of the Calcutta High Court’s May 2024 judgment which revoked the OBC status granted to 77 more communities, mainly between 2010 and 2012, calling the process illegal and unconstitutional.The court canceled around 1.2 million OBC certificates issued after 2010 but protected the jobs that had been obtained through these certificates. It also provides that OBC certificates issued before 2010 will remain valid.On May 19, the state government stopped religion-based classification and regularized 66 communities that were included in the OBC list before 2010, restoring their eligibility for 7% reservation in government jobs. Monday’s bill provides legal support for this decision.
