The West Bengal government on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it will conduct a fresh survey to identify Other Backward Classes in the state, reported Live Law.

The exercise would be completed within three months, the state government told a bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih.

The bench was hearing a petition by the state’s Trinamool Congress government against an order of the Calcutta High Court quashing the classification of 77 communities, a majority of them Muslim, under the Other Backward Classes category.

In May, the High Court cancelled all Other Backward Classes certificates issued in West Bengal after 2010, saying that “religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion” for granting the status to the 77 communities.

Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the state Commission for Backward Classes has informed the state administration that it would “conduct the benchmark survey on communities who have applied to the commission for inclusion” in the state’s OBC list.

The bench will hear the matter next in July.

“Needless to say, the said exercise would be without prejudice to the rights of either of the parties,” said the bench.

The High Court’s decision in May was expected to affect nearly five lakh certificates.

The High Court’s division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha had passed the order while hearing a petition challenging the process of granting Other Backward Classes certificates under the 2012 West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress was in power in the state in 2012.

The bench, however, clarified that the judgement would not affect those who have already availed of reservations using the caste certificates issued under the section.

Following this, Banerjee had said at the time her government will challenge the High Court order in higher court.

“We do not accept the order that scrapped OBC certificates,” Banerjee had said at a Lok Sabha elections rally. “We will contest at a higher court after summer vacation.”

Hearing the matter in December, the Supreme Court verbally observed that reservations cannot be given based on religion.

The state government had told the court that the reservation was not granted based on religion but on the backwardness of the communities. “Backwardness exists in all communities,” Sibal had added.