The Supreme Court of India on Friday, August 22, stayed a Calcutta High Court order that had directed the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board (WBJEEB) to cancel its existing merit list and prepare a fresh one based on a pre-2010 list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities. The stay effectively clears the way for the long-delayed publication of the WBJEE 2025 results.
A bench led by Chief Justice BR Gobind Singh passed the order after hearing the state government’s plea challenging the earlier verdict by Justice Kaushik Chanda of the Calcutta High Court.
The WBJEE results, initially scheduled for release on August 7, were held up after Justice Chanda directed the board to revise its merit list using an older OBC classification consisting of 66 communities listed before 2010. The High Court also directed that 7% OBC reservation be maintained, but ruled that no admissions could proceed based on the updated OBC list introduced after 2010.
The state government first challenged the order before a division bench of Justices Sujoy Pal and Smita Das De, but the bench declined to interfere with the single-judge ruling. The matter was then escalated to the apex court.
In the interim, the WBJEEB issued an official circular on August 18 requesting SC/ST/OBC candidates to submit valid caste and community certificates via the official portal between August 18 and 21.
With the Supreme Court's intervention, the WBJEEB is now free to proceed with the declaration of results, using the merit list already prepared.
Legal experts say the final verdict on the OBC classification issue is still pending, but for now, students can expect the results to be declared shortly without further legal roadblocks.