JEE Main 2023 eligibility plea rejected: ‘Can’t intervene at this stage,’ says Bombay High Court

The JEE Main exam conducting body National Testing Agency (NTA) sought the dismissal of the petition and said its decision was “conscious and well-considered” and the relaxation of the criterion for previous academic years was “one-time measure”.

According to the JEE Advanced brochure released this year, candidates should have secured at least 75 per cent in Class 12 board exams with the aggregate marks for SC, ST, and PwD candidates at least 65 per cent, or should be within the category-wise top 20 percentile of successful candidates of their respective boards.

This eligibility criterion was in practice earlier too but was temporarily removed in Covid years. However, as all state and national boards returned to normalcy, the criterion was also restored.

The plea, which has been filed by child activist Anubha Srivastava Sahai, was heard in the Bombay High Court on April 24 by a bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep V Marne.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh had argued for the NTA that the policy of 75 per cent criteria was applicable since 2017. Singh said the policy was temporarily relaxed for the years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23. “It is not that we are implementing or re-implementing. This condition was kept in abeyance, and it has been revived,” Singh said.

“Unless it is an exceptional case, how far we can intervene in an education case. We will have to see that under Article 226 of the Constitution… We do not have powers under Article 142. This impugned condition was there prior to Covid-19 and it was relaxed only during Covid-19,” the bench said.