Bengal Assembly passes bills restoring OBC quota to 7%, scraps TMC-era expansion
The BJP government in West Bengal, led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, on Monday passed two key Bills in the Assembly to overhaul the state's
The BJP government in West Bengal, led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, on Monday passed two key Bills in the Assembly to overhaul the state's Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation framework, reversing the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government's decision to expand the OBC quota and list. The Assembly passed the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other Than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) (Amendment) Bill, 2026. Read Full Story With the legislation, the state has restored the OBC reservation to 7 per cent from the 17 per cent introduced by the Mamata Banerjee-led government. The BJP government said the move was in compliance with the Calcutta High Court's March 22, 2024 judgment, which held that only the original 66 OBC categories were legally valid.
113 GROUPS WERE ADDED DURING TMC REIGN During the TMC government's tenure, the OBC list had been expanded by adding 113 additional caste groups, many of them sub-castes from the Muslim community. The revised framework had divided the OBC category into OBC-A, with a 10 per cent quota covering 49 communities, and OBC-B, with a 7 per cent quota for 91 communities. Explaining the rationale behind the amendments, Backward Classes Welfare Minister Gouri Sankar Ghosh said the legislation sought to reverse provisions struck down by the Calcutta High Court while leaving the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and the original OBC list untouched. "I would like to inform the House that no SC or ST list is being changed. Schedule I, which contains the original OBC list, is also not being altered.
Only the list that was added by the previous government, in violation of the High Court's directions, is being removed," Ghosh said. He alleged that the previous TMC government had "hurriedly" added 113 caste groups to the OBC list "only to fulfil political interests and appease a particular community for votes". According to the minister, the amendments have been brought to align the state's reservation law with the Calcutta High Court's verdict, which had invalidated the inclusion of the additional caste groups. 'AMENDMENTS DON'T SHUT DOOR FOR NEW INCLUSIONS' Under the amended law, the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes will once again be the statutory authority responsible for examining claims for inclusion in the OBC list. Ghosh said the amendments do not permanently shut the door on fresh inclusions.
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