MGNREGA dispute: Supreme Court to take up Centre's plea on Monday

Centre has challenged an HC order to restart MGNREGA works in West Bengal. Sanjeeb Mukherjee reports

The Supreme Court will today hear a petition filed by the Centre challenging a Calcutta High Court order that directed the resumption of stalled works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in West Bengal.

 

In June this year, the high court had instructed that all MGNREGA works in the state be resumed from August 1, while also giving the Centre a free hand to take any measures necessary to curb corruption in its implementation.

 

The plea is listed for hearing before a division Bench led by Justice Vikram Nath.

 

The High Court’s order followed a public interest litigation that argued the poor were being denied their lawful entitlement under the Act, which guarantees 100 days of employment a year to rural households. The Bench, comprising Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das, delivered the order in June.

 

Civil society activists have said the Centre, rather than complying with the directive, has decided to challenge it in the apex court. The Calcutta HC had observed that neither the Centre nor the state had acted against those involved in alleged corruption, which delayed the scheme’s implementation in West Bengal.

 

In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had both claimed victory after the June order. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed the ruling, saying the Centre should restart all social welfare programmes stalled in the state for the past three years.

 

“Let them (the Centre) restart the programme first. But this is not their money, it’s public money. It’s our right to get it,” Banerjee told a press conference at the time.

 

The BJP had also welcomed the order, saying that control of the scheme would now rest with the Centre. It argued that there would be no retrospective payments and that only genuine beneficiaries, not “ghost workers”, would be included in the scheme.

 

The Union government had been withholding MGNREGA funds for West Bengal since March 2022, invoking Section 27 of the Act, which allows suspension of funding in cases of rule violations by states. 

 

The provision was first invoked in December 2021, with allegations of large-scale corruption and breaches of guidelines. In a parliamentary reply in July 2022, the rural development ministry had acknowledged the same. At the time, unpaid liabilities for wages under MGNREGA were estimated at ₹2,605 crore.

 

According to some reports, the state claims the Union government now owes it ₹7,500 crore, including ₹2,744 crore in unpaid labour wages.