In proportion to their population, Muslims in Rajasthan are worse off than Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Despite this, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Rajasthan is reportedly considering reviewing the status of 14 Muslim groups on its Other Backward Castes (OBC) list.
The state’s social justice minister indicated that a decision would be made after June 4, following the results of the Lok Sabha election. “We will examine after June 4 if the inclusion of these (Muslim) communities in the OBC list from 1997 to 2013 was legal or illegal,” a Times of India report quoted Gehlot as saying.
This development follows a recent Calcutta High Court ruling that struck down several classes designated as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under a 2012 West Bengal Act, deeming these classifications illegal. The judgement was based on petitions challenging the provisions of the Act. However, the court clarified that the services of individuals from the struck-down classes who are already employed or have benefited from reservation or have succeeded in any selection process of the state would not be affected by the order.
Specifically, the court invalidated several 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 executive orders of the state government classifying 66 classes as OBC before 2010 were not interfered with since these were not challenged in the petitions.