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Muslims used for political ends; inclusion in OBCs was for electoral gain: The judgment delivered by the Calcutta High Court
The Court of the Calcutta High Court declared 77 classes of Muslims as avails of politics of West Bengal which treated the Muslim community as a commodity in the period of corresponding between 2010 and 2012 [Amal Chandra Das vs State of West Bengal].
The division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha noted that the decision of the State was humiliating to the Muslim community as a whole wherein they are used merely as electoral instruments.
He said that the circumstances came as a shock to the democracy and the Constitution of India while decribing it as a decision.
However, the minds of this Court are far from being closed to the conclusion that the said community sadly was perceived as little more than a political football. This is evidenced by the sequence of occurrence leading to the status conferred to the 77 classes as OBCs and the purpose of including them as a vote bank. Classification of (the classes in the aid community) as OBCs for mere electoral benefits would actually place them at the vulnerable surface of the respective concerned political authority and may further deteriorate or deny other rights” .
These comments are made by the Court in the context of its judgment that sets aside the decision to categorize the mentioned classes as OBC under the WB BCO (est & RB) Act 2012.
The West Bengal State Backward Class Commission, while recommending this provision for SCs also found its proposition to be unconstitutional as it violates the provision of reservation on the ground of secular principle of the constitution.
’It has been the effort of the reports of the Commission to prove that the commission has not made a reservation which is religions-specific, however, it look otherwise to this Court,’
The bench remarked the Commission should have adopted adequate procedural measures when dealing with the applications stating that the applications were filed by the classes from a certain community whether counted as scheduled or not.
It may not be possible for the Commission to have been oblivious of the public declaration made by the then Chief Minister regarding granting of 10 percent quota in the jobs to Muslims as was observed by the Court.
The bench further observed that the State government, after receiving the recommendation from the Commission, within four months of forming the new classes procured and relied on ‘Executive Summary of the study conducted by the Anthropology Department of the University of Calcutta to sub-classify.
The State must have known much earlier of the aforementioned study that was conducted with an intension to establish the cause of backwardness of the Muslim Community, the order stated.
The synergy would call for joining the dots, to notice the curious timeline. The announcement by the CM following the recommendation of the 77 classes in lightening speed by the Commission, the consequent declaration by the State of such Religious Classes as OBCs and the Executive Summary of the Anthropology Department of Calcutta University and the sub-classifications based on the same – it was all too quick, the Court said.
It, therefore, found that the religion was the only basis used in pronouncing such communities as OBCs.
This strategy was rejected on the basis of Sachar Committee report which clearly highlighted the plight of SCs and backward caste students.
Butaking note that State relied on the Sachar Committee report to support its claim that the Muslim community was in fact backward in the State, the Court stated,
This court observed that the Sachar Committee was formed by PMO under the Cabinet Secretariat ‘ This clearly reveals the intention of the Government to provide safety to Muslim minority so that they can continue their business in India in a safe environment. It was not constituted under Article 163 of the Indian Constitution which outlines the formation of a High Court. This act comes under Article 340 of the Constitution which authorises only the President to constitute a Commission for the backward classes. Thus, the report of the Committee cannot be regarded as having Constitutional grounding or approval on the part of Ugandans.
The Court also stated that the data which was collected about Muslims in any country by the Sachar Committee was already “obsolete” by 2010.
The Sachar Committee was formed on March, 9, 2005 and filed its report in or around Octover 2006 The state introduced the classes in 2010, i.e., four years after the Sachar Committee report.
It also did not agree with the reasoning that since the ‘Muslim community has been deemed as’ a backward section in some of the reports of other committees constituted by the Centre then they are indeed languishing backward and it was not necessary to carry out any sort of a survey or investigation into their backwardness.
The learned AAG has relied on the Mandal Commission on the basis of which the Mandal commission was prepared and tabled in the Parliament in early 1990s. It was based on this argument that the said classes of Muslim community have been declared backward and therefore, if that was so, the State would have included those classes from the Muslim community under the state list of OBCs in 1992 itself.
