Calcutta University BA LLB admissions 2025 delayed over OBC categorization dispute, SC order awaited

The Legal Logjam: What delayed the Calcutta University BA LLB Admissions 2025?

The pre-2010 OBC reservation policy of West Bengal had 7% OBC reservation and this group was divided into 66 sub-groups. Meanwhile, post-2010 the state had added more sub-groups to the existing reservation. The new West Bengal OBC reservation policy had 113 sub-groups with 77 muslim categories and 36 hindu categories. An interesting turn of events came when the Calcutta High Court scrapped the West Bengal government’s post-2010 reservation policy in 2024. The West Bengal government later challenged this high court order in the Supreme Court of India.

Meanwhile, in the interim the West Bengal Government also announced a new OBC reservation list. This list comprises a total 140 sub groups with 77 muslim and 63 Hindu groups. Interestingly, the OBC reservation percentage has also been increased to 17% in this list. On June 18, the Calcutta High Court put a stay on this fresh list as well. In total around 20 lakh applications have been sent to the state education board and the merit list has not been prepared due to the legal hurdle.

Ongoing high court and supreme court cases regarding OBC categorization in WB

As of now there are many high court and supreme court cases pending for hearing regarding the OBC categorization in the state of West Bengal. The Supreme Court was supposed to hear the West Bengal state’s petition to challenge the high court order on July 15, 2025, but the hearing was postponed. Meanwhile, there are many other high court and supreme court cases around this matter that are pending for hearing. Here are some of the major cases related to the OBC categorization dispute:

• A supreme court case regarding West Bengal state’s challenge to the high court order scrapping the post-2010 OBC list was scheduled for hearing on July 15, 2025, but it could not proceed and the next hearing date is awaited.

• The original case in this regard - “Amal Chandra Das vs. State” will also be tentatively heard on July 22, 2025. The hearing will be regarding the three-month period given to the West Bengal government to prepare a list.

• The Calcutta High Court had put a stay on the interim fresh OBC list of 140 categories by the WB government. Later, the state challenged it in the Supreme Court and the same is expected to be heard on July 18, 2025.

• Several other tagged cases including “Atmadeep and Purabi Das”, are also listed for hearing on July 18.

• A contempt of court case in the Calcutta High Court was scheduled to be heard on July 16, but has not yet been listed.

When will the Calcutta University BA LLB admissions start?

Given what has transpired until now, the matter is still subjudice and there are no signs of the Calcutta University BA LLB admissions starting soon. Candidates can expect the Calcutta University BA LLB admission notification to be published sometime in August 2025. The university conducts the Calcutta University Law Entrance Test (CULET) for admission to law courses in the university and other participating colleges. However, it is still not clear if the exam will be conducted given the delay or if the university will conduct admissions based on merit list prepared from class 12 marks.