Plea seeks relaxation of criteria for JEE (Advanced) 2023: Delhi HC seeks Centre’s response

When the respondents raised an objection to the maintainability of the plea that while the plea states that 67 students have filed it in a “representative capacity” while affidavits of only three persons are in the plea, the HC said, “Even if its accepted for two-three students it will go for all. This is just a technicality”.

The plea claims that the petitioners are students who have passed their 12th class in 2021 and are preparing for the JEE (Main & Advanced) 2023 for getting admission in the various Indian Institute Technology, National Institute of Technology etc., of the country.

“It is submitted that the petitioner’s 12th (or equivalent) board examinations were either cancelled or were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. It is further submitted that in the JEE Examinations of 2021 and 2022 the candidates were exempted from their performance in the board examinations ahead of passing them. Hence hereby it is requested that the above requested relaxation be provided along with relief from the Clause 26 in the Information Brochure of JEE (Advanced) 2023 “Performance in Class XII (or Equivalent) Board Examination for admission to IITs””.

The plea requests for a relaxation in the JEE (Advanced) eligibility criterion 3 & 4 of “Two attempts in Two consecutive years” through which, the students who did not appear in the JEE (Advanced) twice or even once, can appear in the JEE (Advanced) 2023 as a special provision in the exam for pass outs of class 12 of 2021 as was given to pass outs of class 12th of 2020 in the year 2022.

The plea submits that present petitioners are “identically situated to that of the students of 12th pass out of 2020” since students of both the years were adversely affected by the ongoing pandemic at the relevant time.

The plea states that pass outs of 2021 (batch of 2020-21) faced severe mental stress, anxiety, depression and various non compensable damages due to the “fatal Delta COVID wave of 2021” that ranged from financial distress to loss of family members. It states that this was also acknowledged by then chairman of Joint Admission Board of JEE (Advanced) 2021 Prof. V. K. Tewari, Director, lIT Kharagpur.

“It is submitted that due to unclear Covid situations, many students took online coaching which were not as good as of today… To add numbers to this disparity, even the offline batches were taken online again near the Omicron covid outbreak of January 2022,” the plea states. Apart from seeking relaxation of criterion 3 and 4, the plea further prays for relaxation of Clause 26 of the JEE (Advanced), 2023 Information Brochure which requires 75% aggregate marks in the Class XII Board examination to get admission to IIT.