WBJEEB: SC’s ‘interim stay’ order brings relief to lakhs of students in Bengal

Kolkata: Bringing relief to lakhs of students in West Bengal, the Supreme Court on Friday put an interim stay on the Calcutta High Court order that had directed the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board (WBJEEB) to scrap its existing merit list and prepare a fresh one on the basis of a pre-2010 list of Other Backward Classes (OBC). The stay cleared the way for the long-delayed publication of WBJEE 2025 results.

The results, originally scheduled for release on August 7, were stalled after a Calcutta High Court directive. The process moved forward only after the Supreme Court put an interim stay on the directive on Friday, paving the way for publication of the results after 117 days. Counselling is slated to begin on August 28.

Of those who appeared for WBJEE this year, 77,793 were from West Bengal and 23,850 from outside. Over 50 per cent of the candidates came from the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE), of whom 96.64 per cent qualified.

Earlier, while Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned that the OBC quota dispute could jeopardise the future of thousands of students across Bengal, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari and BJP leaders chose to celebrate the Calcutta High Court’s order. Adhikari was seen distributing sweets inside the Assembly premises, even as students and their families faced uncertainty over admissions and career prospects.

However, that celebration seems to have been short-lived. The Supreme Court’s ruling apparently validated what the Chief Minister had warned all along, that striking down the quota without weighing its wider consequences would imperil the academic future of an entire generation. For the TMC, the episode highlighted how the Opposition was willing to indulge in politics at the expense of Bengal’s students.

The state government had first moved the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justices Sujoy Pal and Smita Das De, but the bench declined to intervene in the single-judge ruling. The matter was subsequently taken to the Supreme Court.

Moreover, after the apex court stay came in on Friday, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh shared an old photograph on social media, alleging that a Calcutta High Court judge, who issued the OBC-related verdict, had once been seen attending a programme organised by the BJP’s law and legal cell.

The interim stay, passed by the Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai, came after the state government moved the apex court challenging the earlier verdict of a single bench of Justice Kaushik Chanda of the High Court.

However, the larger issue of OBC classification remains under judicial consideration, with the next hearing scheduled for Monday.

Justice Chanda had ordered the board to revise the merit list using a 66-community OBC classification that existed before 2010, and ruled that candidates holding OBC certificates issued after 2010 would not be eligible for counselling. The court had also directed that the seven per cent OBC quota be maintained.

Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee wrote on X: “I am extremely delighted that within a short time of the significant verdict of the Honorable Supreme Court, we have been able to publish the results of this year’s Joint Entrance Examination. I express my gratitude to the State Joint Entrance Board for the swiftness with which they accomplished this task. Now, more than one lakh boys and girls from our state can confidently move forward towards their goal of becoming engineers and architects in the coming days. Alongside this, in the same manner, following the verdict of the Honorable Supreme Court, the merit list for admission to undergraduate courses in various colleges has also been published today on the central admission portal. This is also a matter of great joy. Other related pending issues will also be resolved promptly. Due to some legal complexities, we were compelled to wait for the publication of the results. I am sorry for this, but it was by no means intentional on our part. I never want anyone to suffer harm. I always wish for everyone’s well-being. We will also ensure that no one suffers any loss due to the delayed publication of the results.”