Bengal MGNREGA row: SC nixes Centre's plea against HC order to resume works

The Supreme Court upholds the Calcutta High Court's directive to restart MGNREGA works in West Bengal, ending a prolonged standoff over halted rural job funds

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the special leave petition (SLP) filed by the central government against a Calcutta High Court (HC) order directing it to resume MGNREGA works in West Bengal from August 1, 2025.

 

The SLP was heard by a bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta. The central government was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

 

In June, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the resumption of all works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in West Bengal from August 1. The court had also granted the central government a free hand to take any necessary measures to curb corruption in the implementation of the scheme in the state.

 

 

Although the HC’s directive, activists and civil society groups alleged that neither the central nor the state government took any steps to comply. Instead, the Centre approached the SC challenging the HC order.

 

“Today’s dismissal by the SC marks a decisive victory for Bengal’s rural workers,” the Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity, which has been spearheading the fight for workers’ rights, said in a statement.

 

The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), which has accused the central government of unreasonably withholding MGNREGA funds, also welcomed the SC’s “clear and unequivocal verdict” that it said marked the end of “an unjust and politically motivated financial blockade”.

 

“By withholding MGNREGA funds for over three years, the Centre deprived Bengal’s rural poor of their livelihoods in an act that defied both morality and constitutional propriety,” it added.

 

Trinamool Congress leaders Abhishek Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, Kirti Azad, and Derek O’Brien also welcomed the SC order. The Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity meanwhile in a statement late in the night condemned TMCs claiming credit for the SC verdict saying the judgement is a victory of Bengal's rural workers not of any political party. 

The Union government had invoked provisions under Section 27 of the MGNREGS Act, which allow it to stop funds in cases of rule violations, to withhold funds from West Bengal since March 2022, alleging large-scale corruption and mismanagement in the scheme’s implementation. These allegations included the presence of numerous bogus beneficiaries.

 

The section was first invoked in December 2021. West Bengal, according to some reports at that time, had claimed that the Centre owed it ₹7,500 crore, of which labour wages alone amounted to ₹2,744 crore.