The Supreme Court’s stay on Calcutta High Court’s order to put on hold the implementation of the state’s new list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has paved the way for the publication of the state JEE results, merit lists for undergraduate admission, and the conduct of the SSC examination.
Education minister Bratya Basu posted on X: “Today’s stay in the Supreme Court is a moral victory of the OBC policy of our... Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. We in the Higher Education Department had already anticipated this and are fully prepared to take appropriate actions immediately”.
The actions that the education minister referred to mean the publication of the JEE results, coming out with the merit lists for the first phase of admissions in government and aided colleges, and holding the selection tests to appoint schoolteachers on schedule, said an education department official.
Metro explains how the order impacts the varied academic procedures that had been stalled following the high court’s June 17 order.
JEE results
The state JEE examination was held on April 27, and the results were to be published on June 5.
On July 5, the state JEE board chairperson stated that the results could not be published because of a dispute over OBC reservations, which, she said, was under legal scrutiny.
The delay caused considerable anxiety among students and their guardians. Several parents wrote to the higher education department in early July, flagging concerns about prospective BTech students leaving Bengal.
Taranjit Singh, the president of a forum of private engineering colleges, told Metro on July 5 that the delay in publication of the results prompted many prospective students to leave the state and take admission elsewhere.
Debraj Kundu, who works in a tech company in Sector V, was among the parents who wrote to the education department expressing concern over the delay.
“Following the delay, my son took admission at IIEST Shibpur. But his first preference was to study BTech at Jadavpur University. We want the state JEE board to publish the results as soon as possible. If my son gets a top rank, he would still prefer to study in a converted stream at JU,” said Kundu, who graduated from JU’s civil engineering department in 1997.
Asked about the possibility of result publication, state JEE board chairperson Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee said in a text message on Monday: “Let us receive a copy of the order and a corresponding government order first.”
Singh, the president of the Association of Professional Academic Institutions (APAI), said: “The board must publish the results without further delay. Some prospective students might have already left. Students who have yet to leave must be allowed to take admission immediately.”
UG admissions
Undergraduate applications through the state-run centralised admission portal for admission to government and government-aided colleges are being accepted online.
The process started on June 18 and will continue till July 30.
The submission of the application was supposed to be completed by July 1, and course-wise merit lists and seat allotment were to be declared on July 6. Candidates were supposed to take admission between July 6 and 12.
The department has thrice extended the deadline since July 1 because of the OBC
case being heard in the apex court.
On July 25, the deadline was extended to July 30.
The series of extensions pushed back the start of classes, Siuli Sarkar, the principal of Lady Brabourne College, said on Monday.
The applicants had also been asked not to mention any caste category in their applications following the reservation dispute.
“We have to come up with an edit window during which the candidates will mention their categories, which will be categorised based on the Supreme Court’s order,” said an education department official.
Sarkar told Metro: “I want the department to issue a corresponding order, enabling the start of the admission process as soon as possible.”
The principals are worried because autonomous and minority institutions, which are outside the portal’s ambit, have already started classes.
In the semesterised examination system, missing class days can have a telling impact on what students learn.
SSC exam
The School Service Commission (SSC), which will conduct the tests on September 7 and 14 to appoint teachers at the secondary and higher secondary levels of government-aided schools, had also asked the 5.8 lakh applicants not to mention their categories.
The 31-day application window closed on July 21.
“We will issue a notice on Tuesday, announcing an edit window during which the candidates will mention their categories. Without this exercise, the commission would not be able to hold the examination,” said an SSC official.
Reaction
Debanjan Mandal, the managing Partner Fox & Mandal, who represented the state in the Supreme Court, said: “The Supreme Court by today’s order has upheld the State’s 2025 OBC list — 76 communities will enjoy the benefit of reservation in addition to 64 communities, with increased reservation of 17%, an increase of 10%. The shadow of uncertainty over the OBC list is cleared for now; admissions and recruitments may proceed accordingly.”