Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to order the relaxation of the 75 percent minimum 12th Board standard score eligibility criteria for admission to IIT, NIT, IIIT and CFTI/GFTI through JEE Main and JEE Advance exams.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep V Marne dismissed a PIL seeking relaxation of eligibility criteria.
“The students, whose cause is allegedly defended by the petitioner, have no vested right or legitimate expectation to claim a relaxation in the eligibility criteria for admission to NIT, IIT and CFIT during the current year. As the granting of relaxation is a political decision, the Government of India can take the same under appropriate circumstances. This court would not be in a position to issue a mandamus order directing the government to grant a relaxation in the eligibility criteria for admissions,” the court held.
The court said that the eligibility criteria were relaxed in the previous three years due to special circumstances. Just because the relaxation was granted in the prior three years due to COVID, students do not have the right to continue to claim the relaxation indefinitely, the court said. The court did not find the eligibility condition to be arbitrary in any way.
The court also noted that JEE is an all-India exam taken by thousands of students and JEE Main 2023 has already taken place while JEE Advance is scheduled to take place shortly. “This would be another reason why this court would be loathe to interfere in the JEE completion methodology and/or admissions process,” the court said.
Although the NTA had filed an affidavit in response to the court’s inquiry as to the purpose of the eligibility criteria, the court declined to examine the merits of the NTA’s reasons, noting that since it is a matter of political decision of the NTA in its affidavit had stated that the eligibility criteria of a minimum of 75 percent in boards for admission to NIT, IIIT, CFTI/GFTI is a sound and well-considered political decision.
The NTA did not comment on the same criteria for admission to IITs as it is not the authority responsible for conducting JEE Advance and deciding eligibility criteria for IITs. The affidavit also indicated that holding a third session for JEE Mains 2023 in May is untenable.
The court ruled that relaxing the eligibility criteria will affect other students who have made the cut. The limitations of the court need to be seen as the exam is conducted all over India, the court added.
The High Court rejected the sentence for the postponement of the JEE Mains 2023 exam in January.
The petition argued that many candidates belong to batches that were not evaluated on the basis of performance in previous years as board exams were cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. According to the petition, there are students with less than 75% marks but who could do well in JEE Mains and if they are denied a fair chance, it will affect the future of lakhs of bright students.
The petition said that the NTA’s notification came at the end of the academic year. The eligibility criteria should not be suddenly changed as students have been preparing with the expectation that it will be the same as last year, according to the petition.
