SC OBC hearing on Mon, HC refuses to pass order on JEE PIL
Times of India | 22 August 2025
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday refused to pass any order in PIL, seeking the publication of WBJEE results, given that the Supreme Court is likely to hear the OBC-related issue on Aug 25. The HC will next hear the case on Sept 2. The results of West Bengal JEE, held on April 27, and undergraduation merit lists for centralised admission portal as well as Presidency have been put on hold owing to the OBC legal tangle. Justice Kausik Chanda on Aug 7, in suo motu contempt proceedings against WBJEE Board, had directed it to publish a fresh JEE merit list, with 7% seat reservation for the 66 classes of OBC candidates, as recognised by the state backward classes department, prior to 2010. The judge had directed that the list be published in 15 days, and so, the deadline was Thursday, Aug 21. This order was challenged in the SC and is likely to be heard next Monday.
The WBJEE Board counsel on Thursday submitted before the division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De that it was ready to publish the JEE results but could not due to the pending HC case. Justice Pal observed that the single bench had already given a time limit to publish list and that there was no scope for further order, considering the case pending at the SC.
The PIL that came up for hearing in the HC on Thursday was filed by the father of a girl, who appeared for West Bengal JEE this time, seeking "urgent and time-bound intervention" of the court amid the "inordinate, unexplained and ongoing delay" in the publication of the result by the board. "...
He (petitioner) had no other alternative but to come to court due to the inexplicable delay in the publication of WBJEE results, which is critically affecting the petitioner's daughter and over a lakh similarly situated aspirants," the petition stated. It was mentioned that the National Testing Agency (NTA) published the JEE Mains result within 15 to 25 days, the exam being held on Feb 12 and the result published on April 19.
The petition mentioned that MHT-CET (Maharashtra) and KCET (Karnataka) announced results within 30 to 40 days of exam dates, but the WBJEE delay forced students to "either forgo other options or take uncertain chances". "The WBJEE counselling begins by mid-July. WBJEE 2024 counselling started on July 10. But with results for WBJEE 2025 still pending, the counselling is being pushed to late July or Aug, directly overlapping with or lagging behind national and private admission cycles," the petition read.