Education And Career News in news18.com, Education And Career Latest News, Education And Career News
Last Updated:
The petition argued that although they were eligible to appear for their final attempt in the JEE Mains 2025, they were deemed ineligible to appear in the JEE Advanced 2025
Supreme Court of India. (File photo/PTI)
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking a direction to allow students who cleared their Class 12 exams in 2023 to participate in IIT entrance exam — Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2025, reported PTI. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih observed that the matter was within the policy domain and that courts should be cautious about interfering in academic matters.
The petition, filed by 18 IIT aspirants who had passed their Class 12 exams in 2023, argued that although they were eligible to appear for their final attempt in the JEE Mains in 2025, they were deemed ineligible to appear in the JEE Advanced scheduled for May 18.
The plea contended that the petitioners were affected by the “abrupt and arbitrary policy reversal” regarding the eligibility criteria for JEE Advanced 2025 by the Joint Admission Board (JAB), which initially increased the permissible attempts from two to three on November 5, 2024, only to rescind it on November 18 last year.
The bench questioned Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on why three attempts were allowed in JEE Mains when it was restricted to two for JEE Advanced. “Why don’t you restrict it to two even for mains?” the bench asked, adding, that “It is better that now you bring two for both.”
Mehta referred to a January 10 order by the Supreme Court concerning a separate petition. The order mentioned that JAB had issued a press release on November 5 of the previous year, stating that students who appeared for the Class 12 examination in 2023, 2024, and 2025 would be eligible for the JEE-Advanced.
The top court then noted that another press release was issued on November 18, 2024, restricting eligibility to only the academic years 2024 and 2025.
Mehta explained that the November 18, 2014 press release, which was challenged in an earlier petition, was being questioned in this plea as well.
He stated that on January 10, he had argued before the Supreme Court that the decision announced in the November 18 press release was made in the students’ best interest, as it aimed to prevent them from losing focus on their studies while preparing for JEE-Advanced in hopes of getting into the IITs.
Senior advocate Shadan Farasat, representing the 18 petitioners, pointed out the inconsistency between JEE Mains and JEE Advanced regarding the number of attempts allowed.
On March 27, the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre, JAB, and others regarding the plea.
The plea, filed by advocate Mrinmoi Chatterjee, argued that the lack of uniformity in the number of attempts for JEE Mains and JEE Advanced deprives the petitioners of equal opportunities to secure admission in IITs compared to students who passed Class 12 in 2024 and 2025.
The plea noted that admissions to IITs are secured through a two-step entrance examination – JEE-Mains followed by JEE Advanced. JEE Mains is held in two sessions each year.
In its January 10 order on a separate petition, the Supreme Court stated that students who had withdrawn from their courses and dropped out between November 5, 2024, and November 18, 2024, would be allowed to register for JEE Advanced.
Source link
News18
#Dismisses #Plea #IIT #Aspirants #JEE #Advanced #News18