MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Tuesday concluded hearing and reserved for judgment a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that has challenged eligibility criteria for aspirants vying for admissions to premier institutes like IITs, NITs, IIITs of scoring 75% in qualifying board examinations for standard XII.
The verdict is to be pronounced on Wednesday, said the Bench of Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice S V Marne on Tuesday after asking whether a relaxation can be granted.
The rule was made in 2017-18 and kept in abeyance during the pandemic on a yearly basis only argued National Testing Agency (NTA) represented by additional solicitor general Anil Singh and counsel Rui Rodrigues.
This condition, said NTA, stands revived and the end of the year in which the exception was made and since all students were aware since the eligibility requirement is mentioned in the brochure, said ASG. “Hence, there can be no question of legitimate expectation. The relaxation was specific and clear,’’ it was argued
Ruling out the possibility of a “third session” of JEE (Main) examination in May, this year, the NTA said it would be “unsustainable”. The JEE Main exams were held in January 2023 and April 2023 and the JEE Advance exams to be held in June 2023.
Joint Entrance Examination (Mains) is a qualifying exam for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) and other institutes said the petitioner, an activist Anubha Sahai and further eligibility cannot be imposed, she argued.
Utpal Hazra whose child’s qualifying board exam marks are less than 75 percent but in JEE (mains) had scored 91 percentile said the new eligibility criteria issued on December 15, 2022 was “too late’’ since students who wished to apply for improving their board exam scores missed that cut off.
Students studying for IIT often focus on the JEE preparations more.
Seeking dismissal of the PIL, they said, the NTA decision was “conscious and well considered” and the relaxation of the criterion for previous academic years was “one time measure”. The NTA, located in New Delhi, said since 2017-2018 the criteria for admission in an IIT, NIIT etc., is that a student in addition to his marks secured in JEE Mains or JEE Advanced must also have got either 75% in their 12 std exam or is within the 20 percentile. It is only in the years 2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 that though this condition was found in the brochure, the government relaxed it as a per year relaxation due to the pandemic, submitted the NTA.
Students have chosen not to utilize the relaxation voluntarily when the same was available and are now seeking to urge that a limited one-time extension must be continued, argued the NTA adding any such continuation if permitted would result in a continuation in perpetuity since every year some students would claim a right to such an extension by way of relaxation.
Binod Kumar Sahu , NTA Director in his affidavit to the PIL said students who passed Class 12 in 2020-21 and 2021-2022 were assessed on the basis of their performance in previous examinations as board exams were cancelled owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The PIL said marks scored by such students were not a “true reflection of their actual ability” adding “those students with lower marks than the eligibility criteria (75 per cent) for this year’s examinations can score very high marks in the upcoming JEE Main 2023, and if a fair chance is denied to them that will affect the future (of) lakhs of bright (students).’’
The NTA said the present eligibility criteria was deliberated and finalised in JEE Apex Board (JAB) meeting on December 12,2022 after which an information bulletin was published.
“It is like the students have missed the last bus and there is no bus after that,” Sahai argued.
To a query from the HC on actual implementation by Boards of publishing the 20 percentile, the NTA said boards are expected to publish the 20 percentile and ensure it is readily available.
The verdict is to be pronounced on Wednesday, said the Bench of Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice S V Marne on Tuesday after asking whether a relaxation can be granted.
The rule was made in 2017-18 and kept in abeyance during the pandemic on a yearly basis only argued National Testing Agency (NTA) represented by additional solicitor general Anil Singh and counsel Rui Rodrigues.
This condition, said NTA, stands revived and the end of the year in which the exception was made and since all students were aware since the eligibility requirement is mentioned in the brochure, said ASG. “Hence, there can be no question of legitimate expectation. The relaxation was specific and clear,’’ it was argued
Ruling out the possibility of a “third session” of JEE (Main) examination in May, this year, the NTA said it would be “unsustainable”. The JEE Main exams were held in January 2023 and April 2023 and the JEE Advance exams to be held in June 2023.
Joint Entrance Examination (Mains) is a qualifying exam for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS) and other institutes said the petitioner, an activist Anubha Sahai and further eligibility cannot be imposed, she argued.
Utpal Hazra whose child’s qualifying board exam marks are less than 75 percent but in JEE (mains) had scored 91 percentile said the new eligibility criteria issued on December 15, 2022 was “too late’’ since students who wished to apply for improving their board exam scores missed that cut off.
Students studying for IIT often focus on the JEE preparations more.
Seeking dismissal of the PIL, they said, the NTA decision was “conscious and well considered” and the relaxation of the criterion for previous academic years was “one time measure”. The NTA, located in New Delhi, said since 2017-2018 the criteria for admission in an IIT, NIIT etc., is that a student in addition to his marks secured in JEE Mains or JEE Advanced must also have got either 75% in their 12 std exam or is within the 20 percentile. It is only in the years 2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 that though this condition was found in the brochure, the government relaxed it as a per year relaxation due to the pandemic, submitted the NTA.
Students have chosen not to utilize the relaxation voluntarily when the same was available and are now seeking to urge that a limited one-time extension must be continued, argued the NTA adding any such continuation if permitted would result in a continuation in perpetuity since every year some students would claim a right to such an extension by way of relaxation.
Binod Kumar Sahu , NTA Director in his affidavit to the PIL said students who passed Class 12 in 2020-21 and 2021-2022 were assessed on the basis of their performance in previous examinations as board exams were cancelled owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The PIL said marks scored by such students were not a “true reflection of their actual ability” adding “those students with lower marks than the eligibility criteria (75 per cent) for this year’s examinations can score very high marks in the upcoming JEE Main 2023, and if a fair chance is denied to them that will affect the future (of) lakhs of bright (students).’’
The NTA said the present eligibility criteria was deliberated and finalised in JEE Apex Board (JAB) meeting on December 12,2022 after which an information bulletin was published.
“It is like the students have missed the last bus and there is no bus after that,” Sahai argued.
To a query from the HC on actual implementation by Boards of publishing the 20 percentile, the NTA said boards are expected to publish the 20 percentile and ensure it is readily available.
