India, April 11 -- The Calcutta high court on Thursday observed that the central government cannot stop funds to West Bengal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) eternally.

"Eternally you cannot stop, unless this act is scrapped. If it is scrapped, well and good. You can stop the fund till a complaint (of misappropriation of funds) is enquired into," observed a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam of Calcutta high court.

The court was hearing a petition on the Centre freezing funds under the MGNREGS since March 2022 citing Section 27 of the MGNREG Act, 2005.

Ashoke Kumar Chakraborty, additional solicitor general, told the court that Section 27 of the 2005 Act says that in the event of any...