The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board has instructed SC/ST/OBC candidates who appeared for the April 27 entrance test to submit their caste details online by August 21, following a Calcutta High Court order that has delayed the publication of results.

The board issued the notice on August 18, asking candidates to “mention their respective caste/tribe/community names” through a dedicated window on the JEE board’s website. This requirement stems from Justice Kaushik Chanda’s August 7 order, which stalled the scheduled result publication and mandated a complete recasting of the merit list.

Justice Chanda’s order requires the JEE board to “recast the merit list and publish a fresh panel, providing 7 per cent reservation for the 66 classes of OBC candidates as recognised by the West Bengal Backward Classes Department prior to 2010”.

The court gave the board 15 days to complete this exercise, with compliance affidavits to be filed by August 28.

The judge’s interim order clarified that the Supreme Court’s July 28 stay did not revive OBC-A and OBC-B certificates that were “expressly cancelled by the division bench of this court by its order dated May 22, 2024”.

The controversy began with the Bengal government’s June 8 notification implementing 17 per cent OBC reservation for 140 sub-categories. A Calcutta High Court division bench had previously blocked this implementation. On July 28, the Supreme Court stayed the high court’s prevention order, with a three-judge bench observing that reservation was an executive function requiring no legislation, stating: “We are surprised at the high court’s reasons.”

However, Justice Chanda’s subsequent August 7 order created fresh complications, requiring adherence to pre-2010 OBC norms instead of the newer classification system.

The delay affects admission to over 34,000 BTech seats across 100 private engineering colleges, 10 government engineering colleges, and two state-aided universities in Bengal. Results are typically published in June, followed by online counselling in August.

“Caught in the legal fight, the publication of the results is getting delayed. As a result, we are missing out on students, many of whom have migrated to other states,” said Taranjit Singh, president of the Association of Professional Academic Institutions (APAI). “We want the results to be published at the
earliest.”

The state government has filed a petition challenging the August 7 order, which is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court on September 9.

The JEE board has not said when the results will be announced. Attempts to reach JEE board chairperson Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee and registrar Dibyendu Kar were unsuccessful.