Govt. of West Bengal passed “The West Bengal Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 1976” and also formed “The West Bengal Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of vacancies in Services and Posts) Rules, 1976” under the Act.
 
The Act and the Rules have been amended on many occasions as per necessity.  The main features of the Act and the Rules are mentioned below:

1. The provisions of this Act shall not apply in relation to any employment under the Central Govt., in the WBHJS, any private employment, any employment in domestic service and in case of single post cadre. In case of promotion posts in addition to the above, there will be no reservation in osts having a scale of pay the maximum of which exceeds 18,300/-.
2. As per provisions of this Act, 22% of the vacancies shall be reserved for SC and 6% shall be reserved for ST.  Reservation at this rate is to be maintained for direct recruitment as well as for promotion.
3. To maintain this reservation, two rosters have been provided.  One roster named 100 point roster is to be maintained for direct recruitment.  Another roster, a 50 point roster is to be maintained for promotion.
4. All employers have to maintain separate registers called Register of Appointments (ROA) for different categories of posts and also separately for direct recruitment and for promotion posts.
5. To facilitate maintenance of ROA, a cut-off date on 27-03-1990 has been fixed.  All the vacancies as on that date has to be listed in the ROA.  The format of the ROA has been mentioned in the Rule.  All subsequent vacancies are to be written in the ROA and reservation has to be done as per the relevant 100 point or 50 point roster depending on the nature of vacancy (direct or promotion).
6. The ROA has to be got authenticated by the Competent Authority from time to time, especially as or when vacancies are filled up.  Authentication of ROA is done by the District Magistrate and District Reservation Commissioner in case of Districts and by the BCW Department in case of Kolkata.
7. De-reservation of a reserved post can be done on the ground of non-availability of suitable reserved candidate, despite best efforts.  For this, application in the prescribed format with proof of non-availability, has to be submitted by the Appointing Authority.  DM & Dist. Commissioner for Reservation for Districts and BCW Deptt. for Kolkata are the authorities for de-reservation.  De-reservation is granted by carrying forward the reserved vacancy to nearest available general vacancy.  However, in cases of educational institutions, de-reservation is allowed by carrying forward the reserved vacancy to future unreserved vacancies also.
8. If Appointing Authority violates the provision of reservation by filling up on reserved vacancy with a different category of candidate, he can approach the Govt. for regularisation of the violation.  Regularisation can be granted by the Department by carrying forward the reserved vacancy in the manner as in cases of de-reservation.
9. Every Appointing Authority is required to furnish two reports in the prescribed format annually. These are:
     a) Report on total number of employees and the number of SC & ST amongst them on 1st January of every year.
     b) Report on total number of recruitments during the last calendar year and the number of SC & ST amongst them.
10. If an appointing authority makes an appointment in contravention of the provisions of this Act or fails to maintain records or to furnish annual returns,  he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term of 5 years or with fine of Rs.2,500/-.
11. For getting the benefit of reservation one candidate will have to produce a statutory caste certificate obtained from the competent authority and he can claim such benefit of reservation only from the date of obtaining that certificate.
12. In addition to the benefit of reservation, a reserved candidate can claim age relaxation in case of appointments not only for reserved posts, but also for unreserved posts.
13. Benefit of reservation can be claimed by a reserved candidate only from his State of origin, not from the State he may migrate.
14. Till now 60 communities as SC and 40 communities as ST have been identified in West Bengal.
15. BCW Department of the Govt. of West Bengal administers the provisions of these Acts and the Rules. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India, looks after the matters relating to SCs and OBCs and Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India, looks after the matters relating to the ST at the Central level. In this State there is a State Reservation Cell at the State Level and a District Reservation Cell in each District to monitor implementation of reservation norms.