JEE Main 2023: From revised eligibility criteria, fake circular to HC’s ruling on postponement — here’s all you need to know

However, aspirants were not happy with this schedule as they felt that the NTA should have given them more time to prepare. Candidates claimed that the engineering entrance exam is clashing with their pre-board exams, practical exams, vivas, etc. Several aspirants took to Twitter to raise their voices about this issue, and urged the Ministry of Education to intervene.

Additionally, to voice this concern, activist Anubha Srivastava Sahai also filed a petition against the National Testing Agency (NTA).

Bombay High Court refuses to postpone January session

The Bombay High Court Tuesday heard the plea filed by Sahai but decided to not postpone the January session of JEE Main 2023. A bench headed by acting Chief Justice SV Gangpurwala and Justice Sandeep V Marne ruled on the petition.

“If any orders are passed today directing postponement of January exams, the same may have a cascading effect on future exams also. The extraordinary circumstances do not appear to exist for restraining respondents from holding January examination. Lakhs of students must have been preparing for exam,” the bench ordered, according to Bar and Bench.

Eligibility criterion issue

This year, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) brought back the eligibility criterion of 75 per cent marks in class 12 board exams for admission to NITs, IIITs and CFTIs. According to the JEE Advanced brochure released by IIT Guwahati, 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.

However, the top 20 percentile criterion was not provided for the Main exam earlier. Aspirants claimed that this will cause problems for those who failed to secure 75 per cent in the class 12 exams, especially for those for whom this is the last chance to appear for the entrance exams.

The Bombay HC had decided to consider this issue on February 21.

Revised eligibility criteria

To raise this concern, the Member of Parliament (MP) Karti P Chidambaram wrote a letter to the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, urging him to remove the JEE 2023 eligibility criterion of 75 per cent just for one year. “I would like to bring to your attention concerns raised by students who appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains and Advanced in 2022. These aspirants studied hard to secure admission into India’s leading engineering institutes, however, several hurdles which were completely outside their control, denied them a fair opportunity at the exam,” he said in his letter to Pradhan.

In response to his letter, the Education Minister said that the “matter has been sent to the concerned department for necessary action”. A few days after the response, the Education Ministry decided to revise the JEE Main 2023 eligibility criteria. Now, apart from the All India Rank (AIR) of the candidate JEE Main, a student should either have scored 75 per cent and above in class 12 board exam, or appear in top 20-percentile candidates of the respective board exam result.

Fake notice on social media

Among all this confusion, a fake notice was also circulated on social media that claimed that the JEE Main 2023 January session has been postponed. However, candidates should note that no such decision has been announced by the NTA, and the January exam will be conducted as scheduled on January 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31, 2023.