JEE aspirant’s plea to be allowed to appear for test dismissed

In his petition, the student had sought the court to issue a directive to the Joint Admission Board (JAB) to accept his examination fee examination form, which he could not fill within the stipulated time due to network connectivity glitches. However, the exam agency submitted that as per records petitioner had logged in for the first time after the said time frame for registration was over.

The student submitted that he had passed Class 12 Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam in 2022 and since then had been pursuing studies to appear for JEE exam.

Advocates S S Bedekar and Gargi Warunjikar, appearing for the petitioner, argued that one of the criteria to appear for the exam was that the candidate must have appeared for HSC or equivalent exam in the present or in the last preceding year.

Therefore, the petitioner being HSC qualified in the year 2022, would be eligible to appear for JEE -Advanced exam only upto present year 2023, the advocate informed the court.

“If he misses his chance in the present year, he will not be able to attempt the JEE-Advanced exam again. He is otherwise eligible to appear for the exam having secured 92.25 percentile which is more than the cut-off score required,” the lawyers argued.

Advocate SS Patwadhan representing JAB, through its organising chairperson, IIT-Guwahati, submitted that it was mandatory requirement for eligible candidates to register for appearing in JEE Advanced-2023 on online portal within time frame/period set out, which was from April 30 to May 7 till 5 pm. The exam agency contended that the petitioner had approached court with unclean hands as he did not login into his account at all during the stipulated period.

The bench observed, “The Rules laid down for participating in JEE Advanced examination, of which the said brochure is part, are binding on all the participants including petitioner as the candidates have entered in the process by submitting to the said Rules.” The HC added that as per past Supreme Court judgment, the HC’s directive “cannot result in the authority violating its Rules and Regulations. As a result, the petition is dismissed.”