SC dismisses Centre's appeal, directs to release funds and resume MGNREGA 100 days works in Bengal

In a swift and stinging rebuke, the Supreme Court of India today, upholds the Calcutta High Court's order, forcing the central government to release long-withheld funds and restart the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) 100 days work scheme in West Bengal after a crippling four-year freeze. The landmark ruling came in a mere 30 seconds during a hearing by a two-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, who dismissed the Centre's appeal with a pointed quip to its lawyers: "Will you withdraw the case, or shall we dismiss it?" This endorsement of the Calcutta High Court's August 1, 2025, order not only mandates immediate resumption of the "100 Days Work" program—guaranteeing wage employment to rural households—but also exposes the raw human cost of the standoff, where millions of impoverished laborers have gone without promised pay since December 2021.

Rooted in allegations of fund misuse and corruption, the Centre halted the scheme but the court made clear: while probes can probe, you can't starve an entire safety net for the sake of suspicion, especially when complaints date back to pre-2022 eras.The saga traces back to December 2021, when the Centre pulled the plug on MGNREGA funding for West Bengal amid explosive claims of siphoned wages landing in bogus accounts, leaving genuine rural workers high and dry in a state where agriculture and seasonal labor form the lifelines. The Trinamool Congress government, under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, fired back by blaming Delhi's punitive tactics. Back in June 2025, a Calcutta High Court division bench, headed by then-Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chattopadhyay Das, had already drawn a firm line: corruption warrants audits and safeguards, not a blanket shutdown. "Take whatever steps you like on old complaints," the Chief Justice had urged, "but start the work now."

The Centre's frantic appeal to the Supreme Court, challenging this as overreach, crumbled under the bench's no-nonsense scrutiny, paving the way for funds to finally trickle down to Bengal government. This verdict is a lifeline for Bengal's forgotten rural backbone, where families scraping by on daily wages have weathered floods, famines, and now fiscal neglect. State lawyer Kalyan Bandopadhyay didn't hold back, slamming the Centre for "acting against the people's interests" and crediting the courts for unmasking the real roadblock to ordinary folks' earnings. With the High Court's timeline now ironclad, the Centre faces mounting pressure to disburse the long pending dues, potentially kickstarting projects  across the state panchayats.