Court Suspends Government Order to Re‑verify SC/ST/OBC Certificates

In a decisive ruling on Tuesday, the Calcutta High Court stayed the West Bengal government's May 14 notification that sought to re‑examine all caste certificates issued since 2011 for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

The division bench, featuring Acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Atarup Banerjee, clarified that the interim stay will remain in force until the court reaches a final verdict or issues further orders.

The contested notification aimed to verify the authenticity of every certificate and cancel those identified as fraudulent.

The order was introduced after a surge of complaints about massive issuance of counterfeit certificates during the fifteen‑year rule of the Trinamool Congress government.

A public‑interest litigation challenged the state's power to cancel certificates, contending that such authority was absent under the SC/ST (POA) Act, 1994 and that the move violated constitutional equality provisions.

The High Court upheld the petition, thereby halting any cancellation process pending a comprehensive judicial review.

District officials have been empowered to probe any specific allegations of forged certificates and to act based on the outcome of those investigations.