The Mamata Banerjee government on Monday scored a major win ahead of next year’s Assembly elections over the Narendra Modi government in the tussle over funds for the Centre-sponsored 100-day work scheme.

A division bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta dismissed the case filed by the Centre challenging a Calcutta High Court order.

“Will you withdraw the case or should we dismiss?” the bench asked the Centre.

After the apex court’s verdict, daily wage earners would be able to gain employment under the scheme, MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), after nearly four years.

“Another crushing defeat for the bohiragoto [outsider] Bangla-birodhi zamindars,” Trinamool’s leader in the Lok Sabha and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote, lauding the verdict on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.

“The Supreme Court today dismissed the central government’s plea challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order directing the resumption of MGNREGA in Bengal. This is a historic victory for the people of Bengal, who refused to bow down before arrogance and injustice.”

Mamata had converted the alleged stoppage of funds by the Centre – which cited the state’s failure to provide details on utilisation – into a major poll plank ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and claimed corruption.

The resumption of the scheme will come as a major boost to the state in reaching out to the economically impoverished sections in Bengal’s rural and urban centres with Assembly elections scheduled for next year.

On 18 June, a bench comprising Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chattopadhyay had directed the Centre to resume allocation funds under the MGNREGA with the rider that it could instruct the state on measures to foil any act of corruption.

“When they failed to defeat us politically, BJP weaponised deprivation,” Abhishek wrote. “They imposed economic blockade on Bengal, snatching away the wages of the poor and punishing the people for standing by Maa, Mati, Manush. But Bengal does not yield. We promised to fight for every rightful rupee, every honest worker, every silenced voice.”

In February 2024, Mamata had claimed the Centre had not paid Rs 1.16 lakh crore due to the state since April 2022. She had announced transfer of funds to 21 lakh job cardholders from the state’s coffers. The state has also devised its own minimum 50 days of guaranteed employment to counter rural unemployment.