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The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking a direction to allow students, who had cleared their Class 12 exams in 2023, to participate in JEEAdvanced 2025 for securing admissions in the prestigious IITs.
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 JEE-Advanced 2025 for securing admissions in the prestigious IITs.
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 JAB conducts the JEE-Advanced.
On Monday, 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.
It added, “It is better that now you bring two for both.” Mehta referred to a January 10 order passed by the apex court on a separate petition, which noted that JAB issued a press release on November 5 last year stating that students who appeared for the Class 12 examination in the years 2023, 2024, and 2025 would be eligible to appear for JEE-Advanced.
The top court noted that on November 18, 2024, another press release was issued, restricting eligibility only to the academic years 2024 and 2025.
Mehta said the same November 18, 2024, press release, which was challenged in the earlier petition, was being questioned in this plea.
He stated that on January 10, he had argued before the apex court that the decision notified in the November 18 press release last year was taken in the larger interest of the students, as they could not concentrate on their studies and spent their time preparing for JEE-Advanced in the hope of getting into the IITs.
Senior advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for the 18 petitioners, highlighted the inconsistency between the JEE-Mains and JEE-Advanced regarding the number of attempts allowed for the exams.
On March 27, the top court sought responses from the Centre, JAB, and others on the plea seeking their responses.
“The lack of uniformity in the number of attempts in JEE-Mains and Advanced deprives the petitioners of equal opportunity to secure admission in IIT compared to students who passed XII in 2024 and 2025,” said the plea, filed through advocate Mrinmoi Chatterjee.
Admissions to the IITs, the plea said, are secured through a two-step entrance examination—JEE-Mains followed by JEE-Advanced—and JEE-Mains is held in two sessions a year.
In its January 10 order passed on a separate petition, the apex court stated that such students who had withdrawn from their courses and dropped out between November 5, 2024, to November 18, 2024, would be permitted to register for JEE-Advanced.
