West Bengal Assembly Passes Four Key Bills, Including Public Safety and OBC Reservation Amendments

West Bengal Assembly passed four significant bills, including one to control anti-social activities and public property destruction. Amendments to OBC reservation laws were also approved, reducing the quota to 7% for 66 communities, aligning with court directives. The government stated these changes follow High Court orders and aim to rectify past irregularities in community inclusion.

Kolkata: The West Bengal assembly on Monday passed four key bills, including the Public Safety and Control of Anti-Social Activities Bill, 2026. The legislation is aimed at strengthening measures to curb violence and anti-social activities in the state.

The assembly also passed two other bills - the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the West Bengal Backward Classes Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2026. Another bill passed by the House was the West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Bill, 2026. Speaking on the Public Safety and Control of Anti-Social Activities Bill, West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari while assuring the House said the law would not be "misused" as he addressed the assembly. "There have been instances of factional feuds, communal violence, appeasement politics and riots during the previous regime. If such incidents happen, we will attach the properties of those responsible and will not allow the destruction of public property," Adhikari said.

Also read: Bengal assembly passes bill proposing preventive detention of anti-socials for up to 12 months

The two other key bills passed by the House include the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which provide reservation to 66 communities under the OBC category while revising the quota structure from the earlier 17% to 7% in line with the Calcutta High Court's directives. The amendments also reorganise the OBC categories.

The second bill amends the 1993 law governing the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes.

Live Events

The division of votes was ordered by Speaker Rathindra Bose at the request of ISF MLA Nawsad Siddiqui, who, along with rebel Trinamool Congress MLA Biswanath Das, opposed the bills on the grounds that they violated social justice for backward classes and urged that they be referred to a select committee.

Introducing the bills, Backward Classes Development Minister Gourishankar Ghosh said the government was acting in accordance with the High Court's directions and that there were no political motives behind the amendments.

Also read: Draft Uniform Civil Code bill for West Bengal will be produced before state Cabinet on July 2: CM Suvendu Adhikari

"We have removed 113 classes that were included earlier without any field survey and retained 66 sub-classes that were included following various surveys," Ghosh told the House. "The Backward Classes Commission will conduct inquiries and, if it feels any community should be included, it can make recommendations for government's consideration. The previous government had bypassed the Commission, and that is why the High Court struck down the process," he said.