Percentage of Reservation for OBCs in West Bengal

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL
Backward Classes Welfare Department
Administrative Buildings, 4th Floor, DJ-4, Sector-II, Salt Lake,
Kolkata-700 091

No. 1106-BCW/MR-33/2025 dated the 3rd June, 2025

NOTIFICATION

WHEREAS “backward classes” have been defined in clause (a) of section 2 of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993 (West Ben. Act I of 1993) (hereinafter referred to as the said Act), for the purposes of the said Act, to mean such backward classes of citizens other than the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes as may be specified by the State Government in the lists;

AND WHEREAS “lists” have been defined in clause (c) of section 2 of the said Act to mean lists prepared by the Government of West Bengal from time to time for the purposes of making provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of backward classes of citizens which, in the opinion of that Government, are not adequately represented in the services under the Government of West Bengal, and any local or other statutory authority within the territory of West Bengal or under the control of the Government of West Bengal;

AND WHEREAS the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes (“Commission”) was set up under section 3 of the said Act for identification of the Other Backward Classes of this State;

AND WHEREAS in terms of clause (b) of sub section (1) of section 9 of the said Act, the advice of the Commission shall ordinarily be binding upon the State Government;

AND WHEREAS on recommendation of the Commission and in the public interest, the Government of West Bengal has published a Notification vide No. 917-BCW/MR-33/2025 dated the 8th May, 2025, sub-categorising the classes in the State List of Other Backward Classes under the provisions of the said Act into two sub-categories being ‘Category-A’ and ‘Category B’ wherein Category-A classes would mean ‘More Backward’ and Category-B classes would mean ‘Backward’ within the “backward classes”;

AND WHEREAS on recommendation of the Commission, 64 classes enlisted in the State list of OBCs prior to 2010, have been sub-categorised as 14 classes under Category-A and 50 classes under Category-B vide Notification No. 1056-BCW/MR-33/2025 (Pt. I) dated the 27th May, 2025;

AND WHEREAS on recommendation of the Commission, 51 classes have been included in the State list of OBCs vide Notification No. 1057-BCW/MR-38/2025 dated the 27th May, 2025, out of which 27 classes has been placed under Category-A and 24 classes under Category-B;

AND WHEREAS, at present there are 115 numbers of classes in the State List of OBCs, out of which 41 classes have been sub-categorised under Category-A and 74 classes under Category-B;

AND WHERAS by this Department Order No. 1056-BCW/EC/MR-302/97 dated the 6th November, 1997 provision was made for the 7% reservation in services and posts under the Government of West Bengal, the local and statutory authorities constituted under any State Act, Corporations in which not less than 51% of the paid up share capital is held by the State Government, Universities, Colleges affliated to Universities, primary, secondary and higher secondary schools, other educational institutions which are owned or aided by the State Government and public sector in favour of Backward Classes of citizens as specified in the list;

AND WHERAS the State Government requested the Commission for consultation on determination of percentage of reservation for backward classes of citizens for their adequate representation in the services under the Government of West Bengal;

AND WHEREAS the Commission, after carefully examination of all facts, circumstances and data, recommended to the State Government that the percentage of reservation for Backward Classes may be increased by another 10%, thereby increasing the percentage of such reservation of vacancies in services and posts to 17 % and also that 10% and 7% of separate quota of reservation may be provided for the Category-A and the Category-B of the Other Backward Classes respectively;

Now, THEREFORE, in consideration of the recommendation of the Commission and in the public interest, in pursuance of the provisions of clause (c) of section 2 and clause (b) of sub section (1) of section 9 of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993 (West Bengal Act I of 1993), the Governor is pleased hereby to increase the percentage of reservation for Other Backward Classes in West Bengal to 17% providing 10% reservation for Category-A and 7% for Category-B respectively.

By order of the Governor,

SANJAY BANSAL
Secretary to the Government of West Bengal

No. 1106-BCW dated 03.06.2025, Source

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