The Chairperson of the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board (WBJEEB), Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee, said on Friday, July 4, that the results of the JEE held in April could not be published last month due to the ongoing Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation dispute, which is currently under legal scrutiny. She added that the board is awaiting official instructions before releasing the results.
“We had plans to publish the results on June 5. But we could not because of the OBC reservation issue, which is now sub-judice. We are awaiting directives from the appropriate quarters to publish the results,” Chakravarti Banerjee said while addressing attendees at the pre-counselling and education fair.
The state-level JEE was conducted on April 27, and the results were originally scheduled for release on June 5. However, the delay has triggered concerns among students and parents, with many worried about losing out on opportunities in other states.
According to a report by The Telegraph, several parents have written to the state higher education department, expressing concern that prospective BTech students may be forced to leave Bengal due to the uncertainty.
Taranjit Singh, President of the Association of Professional Academic Institutions (APAI) – a forum representing private engineering colleges, said, “The delay in the publication of the results has prompted some prospective students to leave the state and take admission elsewhere.”
The education fair, where Chakravarti Banerjee made the comments, was organised by APAI.
The delay stems from the Calcutta High Court’s interim stay on a Bengal government notification dated June 8, which had classified 140 sub-castes as Other Backward Classes (OBC). This notification was issued in response to an earlier court ruling that cancelled all OBC certificates granted by the state after 2010.
A division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha issued the interim stay on June 17, effective until July 31. The matter is next scheduled for hearing on July 24. Meanwhile, the state government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, which is expected to be taken up after the court reopens in mid-July following the summer recess.
“In this scenario, the JEE board is not being able to draw the seat matrix factoring in the OBC reservation,” a board official explained.
