Supreme Court Advises West Bengal against Religious Reservation

• The Supreme Court ruled that reservation should not be based on religion.

• The court ruled against West Bengal’s appeal against a Calcutta High Court judgment that included several castes, mainly Muslim communities, in the State’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) list.

• The High Court had deemed religion as the sole criterion for declaring these communities as OBC.

• Advocates for the State and the State argued that the inclusion criteria were based on backwardness, not religion.

• The case is scheduled for hearing on January 7.