A bench of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has instructed the Railway Board to look into a complaint regarding a 2010 amendment to the tender policy during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as the Railways Minister. The complaint alleges that the amendment favored the Muslim community by reducing the statutory reservation for SC/ST/OBC categories under the guise of minority preference, which is not constitutionally supported. Documents reveal that a reservation was introduced for minorities in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) tendering process for railway catering stalls and canteens.
After serving as the Railways Minister from 2009 to 2011, Mamata Banerjee, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kolkata (Dakshin) constituency, later assumed office as the Chief Minister of West Bengal. The amendment made during her tenure as the railways minister reportedly allocated a specific percentage of reservation for minorities in the IRCTC’s tendering process for catering contracts. The matter was raised by the Legal Rights Observatory, prompting the NHRC to issue a notice to the Railway Board for investigation and necessary legal action.
The complaint, filed by the Legal Rights Observatory, argued that the reservation appeared to be for appeasement purposes and was not in line with the Indian Constitution. It was further contended that the reservation infringed upon the rights of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Class categories. The complaint highlighted that the reservation allotment for minority categories A, B, and C was three percent, while for categories D, E, and F, it stood at 9.5 percent.
Recently, the Calcutta High Court invalidated all OBC certificates issued by the West Bengal government post-2010, citing that a significant number of these certificates were granted based on religion. Additionally, the Election Commission of India clarified that OBC certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010 would not be considered as valid supporting identity documents during the ongoing claims and objections review on the draft voters’ list in the state.
