Backwardness, not religion, is only benchmark to decide OBC status: Mamata Banerjee in Bengal assembly

Mamata made the remark at the state assembly laying down the annual report of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes for the fiscal year 2024-25.

"A section is trying to campaign that our government is giving reservation based on religion. This is baseless... There is no question of making the OBC list on the basis of religion," said the Chief Minister as quoted by The Indian Express.

The state cabinet on Monday included 76 castes to the OBC list.

The 76 castes will be added to the existing 64 castes in the list, the daily reported.

"We made the new list of OBC-A and OBC-B on the basis of a scientific survey conducted by the commission and included those communities that are backward. While more backward sections of people have been included under OBC-A, the less backward category come under OBC-B," the report further quoted the Chief Minister, who spoke in the assembly during the monsoon session.

The Calcutta High Court last year cancelled all Other Backward Classes (OBC) certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010.

The verdict was given by a division bench comprising Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha.

The judgement was delivered on a PIL challenging the process of granting OBC certificates.

The court had directed that a fresh list of OBCs be prepared based on the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act of 1993 by the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes.

The high court even termed the  OBC list prepared after 2010 as 'illegal'.

The West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012 section 2H, 5, 6 and Section 16 and Schedule I and III were struck down by high court as 'unconstitutional', the news channel reported.