Blow to Centre, relief for Bengal: Supreme Court upholds Calcutta HC order on MGNREGA

"We are not convinced that the impugned order requires any interference. The SLP is dismissed," said a bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta as quoted by Live Law.

The scheme was put on hold from 2022.

In June this year, a division bench comprising Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) had ordered the Centre to resume the scheme on August 1.

In the same judgement, the court had allowed the central government to impose conditions and restrictions in the state in view of the corruption charges connected to the disbursement of funds under the scheme.

Since last year, the Mamata Banerjee government in the state started clearing the dues from the state fund.

After the Supreme Court's rejection of the Centre's plea, Mamata's Trinamool Congress (TMC) has trained its guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that runs the union government.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee posted on X, "... Today’s verdict is a democratic slap on the face of those who believed Bengal could be bullied, coerced, or silenced. BJP’s arrogance has met its reckoning.

"They seek power without accountability. They take from Bengal, yet refuse to return her dues. But now, they've been defeated in PEOPLE'S VOTE, and in the SUPREME COURT..."