West Bengal Assembly Passes Bills to Cut OBC Quota from 17% to 7%
West Bengal's BJP government on Monday pushed through two significant Bills in the Assembly, bringing major changes to the state's Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation policy. The legislation rolls back the expansion of the OBC quota and community list that had been introduced by the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government under former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Assembly approved 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, marking a major shift in the state's reservation framework.
With the passage of the Bills, the OBC reservation in government jobs has been reduced from 17 per cent to 7 per cent. The BJP government said the decision was taken to comply with the Calcutta High Court's March 22, 2024 judgment, which ruled that only the state's original list of 66 OBC communities was legally valid.
The previous TMC government had expanded the OBC list by adding 113 more caste groups, many of them belonging to sub-groups within the Muslim community. Under that system, OBC reservation had been divided into two categories—OBC-A, which provided a 10 per cent reservation for 49 communities, and OBC-B, which offered a 7 per cent quota to 91 communities.
Defending the amendments, Backward Classes Welfare Minister Gouri Sankar Ghosh said the new laws were intended to restore the reservation system in accordance with the High Court's directions. He clarified that the amendments do not affect the lists of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), or the original OBC communities recognised by the state.
"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 told the Assembly.
The minister also accused the previous TMC administration of expanding the OBC list for political reasons rather than following the prescribed legal process.
"The previous government hurriedly added 113 caste groups only to fulfil political interests and appease a particular community for votes," he alleged.
According to the BJP government, the revised law restores the authority of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes, making it the sole statutory body responsible for examining applications for inclusion in the OBC list.
The government also clarified that the amendments do not permanently prevent new communities from being included under the OBC category. If the Commission conducts surveys and finds that a community qualifies for reservation based on social and educational backwardness, it can recommend its inclusion to the state government in accordance with the law.
The BJP further alleged that the earlier TMC government had bypassed the Commission while adding the 113 communities, a process that was later invalidated by the Calcutta High Court. According to the government, the newly passed legislation restores the Commission's central role and aligns West Bengal's reservation policy with the court's ruling.
