Calcutta High Court Orders Resumption of MGNREGA in West Bengal from August

On Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court ordered the Centre to restart the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme schedule for the state of West Bengal that had been on hold for almost three years on August 1, 2025.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) stated that the Centre may apply special conditions, restrictions, and regulations - measures that other states would not apply - in order to ensure that the irregularities that were experienced when rolling out MGNREGA in West Bengal would not reoccur.

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The Calcutta High Court recognised that the Centre had identified irregularities when disbursing wages under MGNREGA in the state, and acknowledged action had been taken and recoveries conducted and secured into the nodal agency bank account in the state.

The bench said that while the investigation and determination of past irregularities will continue, the court focused on enabling execution of the scheme and taking measures to prevent and corruption in the future.

Chief Justice Sivagnanam remarked, “At this juncture, the court is concerned about the implementation of the scheme in West Bengal prospectively.” He added, “The scheme of the Act does not envisage a situation where the scheme would be put to cold storage for eternity.”

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Moving forward, the bench stated that the Centre has sufficient jurisdiction to inquire into any irregularities or illegalities regarding wage disbursal, but recognised it’s important to draw the line between the past and any future execution.

The court ruled that the order to re-instate MGNREGA in the State of West Bengal is "in the public interest" and further promoted the intent of the Act for which the central statute was made. The court also permitted the authorities of the scheme to apply any necessary safeguards to ensure that the kind of irregularities that occurred 3 years ago do not happen again.

This ruling intervenes amid a tension-filled atmosphere between State and Centre with the implementation of the scheme stalled since 2022 due to allegations of fund withholding and allegations of corruption. There is still hope that this ruling may reinstate the 100 days' job guarantee scheme which is fundamental for employment and livelihood in West Bengal's rural region.

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