JEE Advanced: SC Grants 3 Attempts To Students Who Dropped Out Of College Between Nov 15-18 – News18

Last Updated:January 10, 2025, 12:13 IST

JEE Advanced Attempt Limit Case: Students who dropped out of colleges between November 15 and November 18 will be permitted to attempt the JEE Advanced three times.

The Supreme Court has ordered that students who dropped out of colleges between November 15 and November 18 will be permitted to attempt the JEE Advanced three times, in accordance with the Joint Admission Board’s initial notification. This decision comes after the abrupt withdrawal of the extended eligibility period, which had initially allowed students from the 2023, 2024, and 2025 batches to appear for the exam.

During the hearing, Advocate Parameshwar informed the court about the eligibility criteria changes for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced, administered by the Joint Admission Board (JAB). On November 5, JAB announced that students graduating in 2023, 2024, and 2025 would be eligible to take the exam. However, just 13 days later, the eligibility was reduced to students from the 2024 and 2025 batches only.

Terming the withdrawal of the extended eligibility as arbitrary, Advocate Parameshwar stated, “I can give a list of people who actually withdrew from colleges and engineering colleges thinking they would give exams. Having held promise that students in 2023, 2024 and 2025 would give exams, let them.”

Defending JAB’s decision to revert to the original rule of two attempts, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, “I am a student. I have two options: general engineering college and IIT. If I get less marks, I will go in general colleges. IIT till now, the decision was to give 2 attempts. Now, some decision was taken that instead of 2, 3 days was given. The issue was if students take admission in general college, they don’t concentrate in college but keep preparing for IITs. This is to not waste their 3 years.”

Mehta added, “It is in their interest that they pay attention that after 2 years, they should concentrate since they did not get into IITs. If they dropped out, they can be taken back.”

The Court noted the submissions, highlighting that the original notification by JAB on November 5, 2024, allowed students who appeared in Class 12th in 2023, 2024, and 2025 to take the exam. However, this eligibility was abruptly reduced to two batches. The court recognised that based on this promise, some students had withdrawn from colleges to pursue the IIT exams, and the sudden change was detrimental to their plans.

“Due to the enlarged period of consideration, students do not concentrate in their studies…be that as it may, we are not considering the wisdom of Respondent No. 2. The zone of consideration for 2-3 years for the valid reasons they have restricted for 2 years, no fault could be found. But by press release on Nov 5, students of class 12th would be eligible to appear in 2023, 2024, and 2025.”

The Court ordered that students who withdrew from their colleges between November 5 and 18 based on the initial announcement would be permitted to register for JEE Advanced, ensuring they are not disadvantaged by the abrupt policy change.