The Supreme Court has stayed the Calcutta High Court’s direction to scrap and recast the JEEMAS (PG) 2024 merit list, bringing relief to thousands of medical aspirants. The matter will be heard again after four weeks.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Friday (August 22) stayed a recent order of the Calcutta High Court that had directed the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board (WBJEEB) to scrap and recast the merit list of the Joint Entrance Examination for Medical and Allied Sciences (Postgraduate) 2024–25 session.
The Calcutta High Court had earlier held that the WBJEEB acted in “clear violation” of a previous order while preparing the merit list.
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The High Court had ordered that the list be prepared afresh, giving 7 per cent reservation to 66 classes of OBC candidates as recognised by the West Bengal Backward Classes Department prior to 2010. This was to be done strictly in line with its earlier judgment dated May 22, 2024.
However, on Friday, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran heard senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing on behalf of the West Bengal government.
The state government submitted that the Calcutta High Court’s August 7 order was creating serious problems in the admission process and was difficult for the administration to implement.
After hearing the submissions, the bench issued notice and observed,
“Issue notice… there shall be a stay on the impugned order.”
The matter has now been posted for hearing after four weeks.
The Calcutta High Court in its August 7 order had found fault with the WBJEEB for applying the new reservation policy of the state government, introduced on June 10, to the JEMAS (PG)-2024 admission process.
The High Court pointed out that this policy had already been stayed and that the caste certificates issued under it were struck down earlier.
Because of this, the High Court had asked the WBJEEB to publish a new merit list within 15 days, ensuring that only the 66 OBC communities recognised prior to 2010 were given 7 per cent reservation, as already directed by the 2024 division bench judgment.
The background of the matter lies in the Calcutta High Court’s May 22, 2024 ruling. In that ruling, a division bench of the High Court had struck down the classification of OBC-A and OBC-B categories, and also invalidated the state’s reservation quota of 10% and 7% for them.
The High Court had further nullified all OBC certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010, terming them as illegal.
Later, on March 18 this year, the West Bengal government informed the Supreme Court that the state’s commission for backward classes was once again examining the issue of backwardness of these castes to determine the validity of their OBC status.
The matter has become significant because multiple pleas, including one filed by the state government, have challenged the May 22, 2024 verdict of the Calcutta High Court which had struck down the OBC status of several communities in West Bengal granted after 2010.
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The High Court had also ruled that their reservation benefits in state jobs and educational institutions were illegal.
With the Supreme Court staying the High Court’s order, the fate of the JEMAS (PG)-2024 admissions and the reservation policy in West Bengal now rests on the next round of hearings.
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