I don’t accept Calcutta HC’s OBC certificate cancellation order: Bengal CM

Kolkata: Launching a scathing attack against the Calcutta High Court’s order nixing OBC certificates issued in the state after 2010, West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday said that her government would not accept it and would challenge it in a higher court.

“I do not accept this order of the Calcutta High Court. Recently the Calcutta High Court also cancelled around 26,000 jobs in state-run schools. I did not accept that order as well.

“I will not take any names. Whoever passed it, but I must say that this order favours the BJP. Hence we will not accept it. The reservation for OBCs will continue,” CM Mamata Banerjee said while addressing an election meeting at Hardaha in North 24 Parganas District on Wednesday afternoon.

The Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had passed the order on OBC certificate cancellation earlier in the day.

The Chief Minister linked the Calcutta High Court’s order with the recent statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Congress and other allies of the Opposition INDIA bloc, if voted to power, have plans to reduce the quota for OBCs and give the same to Muslims.

“The Prime Minister is claiming for the last few days that the minorities might snatch the quota of the OBCs. Is that possible constitutionally? The minorities can never do that,” CM Banerjee said.

She said that the OBC quota lists were prepared after conducting a survey under the chairmanship of Upendra Nath Biswas, a retired IPS officer and former minister in her Cabinet.

“Even then there was a case in court. But they got defeated. This time the same thing will happen,” she said.