Long-delayed West Bengal JEE results declared after weeks of legal complications

Kolkata, Aug 22 (IANS) The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board (WBJEEB), on Friday, announced the results of State Joint Entrance Examination 2025, nearly four months after the examination was held.

The WBJEE results were declared after the Supreme Court stayed a Calcutta High Court order that had directed the WBJEEB to cancel its existing merit list and prepare a fresh one based on a pre-2010 list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities.

According to the top 10 merit list published by the WBJEEB, Aniruddha Chakrabarti from Don Bosco School in Park Circus, topped the joint entrance exam.

Samyajyoti Biswas from Kalyani Central Model School in Kalyani stood second while Dishaanth Basu from Delhi Public School in Kolkata's Ruby Park bagged the third position.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated the students who cleared the entrance examination.

"My sincere greetings and congratulations to all the students who passed the State Joint Entrance Examination. I also congratulate your parents and teachers. I would like to ask those who could not get good results for some reason to not get upset and to prepare for better results in the future," Chief Minister Banerjee said.

The Chief Minister also acknowledged that the entrance examination results were declared later than usual due to legal hurdles.

"Due to legal complications, the results have been released a little later than usual. But I believe that by overcoming all the adversities, you will be more successful in the coming days and make Bengal shine," she added.

Meanwhile, Aritro Ray from Delhi Public School in Kolkata's Ruby Park and Trishanjit Doloi from PURV International School in Durgapur bagged the fourth and fifth place in the top 10 merit list.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Calcutta High Court order that had directed the WBJEEB to cancel its existing merit list and prepare a fresh one based on a pre-2010 list of OBC communities.

The stay effectively cleared the way for the long-delayed publication of the WBJEE 2025 results.

The examination was held on April 27 this year.

A bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gobind Singh passed the order after hearing the state government's plea challenging the earlier judgment by Justice Kaushik Chanda of the Calcutta High Court.

The WBJEE results, initially scheduled for release on August 7, were held up after Justice Chanda directed WBJEEB to revise its merit list using an older OBC classification consisting of 66 communities listed before 2010.

The High Court also directed that seven per cent OBC reservation be maintained, but ruled that no admissions could proceed based on the updated OBC list introduced after 2010.

The West Bengal government first challenged the high court's order before a division bench of Justices Sujoy Pal and Smita Das De.

However, the bench refused to interfere with the single-judge bench ruling.

The matter was then taken to the Supreme Court.

In the meantime, the WBJEEB issued an official circular on August 18 requesting SC/ST/OBC candidates to submit valid caste and community certificates via the official portal between August 18 and 21.

With the Supreme Court's intervention, there was no obstacle for WBJEEB to declare WBJEE 2025 results, using the already prepared merit list.

--IANS

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