High Court div bench declines to intervene in WBJEE result order

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court’s division bench on Thursday declined to intervene in a single bench order directing publication of the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE) results within a fixed timeline.

The bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De observed that the single bench had already set a deadline for publishing the results, while the matter is also pending before the Supreme Court, where a hearing may take place next week. The division bench said it would not pass any order at this stage. The next hearing in the case before the bench is scheduled for September 2.

The WBJEE results were originally scheduled to be declared on August 7, but the process was stalled over complications relating to OBC certificates. Justice Kaushik Chanda of the single bench had set aside the merit list and ordered the preparation of a fresh list. He directed that the list must be prepared on the basis of the 66 OBC communities identified before 2010 and implemented within 15 days.

The single bench also made it clear that the 7 per cent reservation for OBC students would continue as before, and no merit list could be published on the basis of the new list. The state government has challenged this order before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, a PIL demanding publication of WBJEE results also came up before the division bench on Thursday. However, with the single bench order in force, no change was made. The state’s counsel informed the court that the matter would be raised before the Supreme Court on Friday.