The results of the state JEE that were expected on August 7 will not be published due to a fresh legal complication.

This has also stalled the publication of the undergraduate merit list for admission to government and aided colleges through the state’s centralised portal.

The JEE board and the higher education department had said the results and merit list would likely be released on August 7 after the Supreme Court stayed a Calcutta High Court order that had blocked the implementation of the state’s June 8 notification on Other Backwards Classes (OBC) reservation in jobs and education.

That high court stay was seen as the key obstacle.

However, during a hearing on admissions to the postgraduate Medical and Allied Sciences course under the West Bengal University of Health Sciences on Wednesday, it emerged that an earlier high court order — dated May 21, 2024 — scrapping a previous OBC reservation notification had not been stayed by the Supreme Court, an education department official said.

Justice Kaushik Chanda was hearing a suo motu contempt petition related to admission to the Medical and Allied Sciences course 2024, for which the JEE board had conducted the entrance test in November 2024.

The court has asked the principal secretary of the education department to attend the next hearing online on Friday morning.

“In light of this order, the JEE results and undergraduate merit list have been put on hold,” the official said.

Some in the department expect clarity after Thursday’s hearing.

The state JEE, conducted on April 27, is for admission to BTech programmes in over 100 private engineering colleges, 10 government engineering colleges, and two universities — Jadavpur and Calcutta. The results were initially expected on June 5.

In early July, JEE board chairperson Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee said the results could not be released because of the “sub-judice” status of the OBC reservation issue.

An education official said that while Wednesday’s developments did not bar the release of the JEE results or merit list, the department preferred caution, given that the Supreme Court had not stayed the high court’s May 21, 2024 order.

On July 28 this year, the Supreme Court ruled that reservation is a fundamental right to be decided by the executive, not something the judiciary can stay.

“We are interpreting Justice Chanda’s order. The principal secretary is expected to tell the court that the state wants to proceed with admissions based on the July 28 apex court order. If the court accepts that, there would be no bar on releasing the results and merit list,” the official said.