PIL seeks postponement of JEE, lower eligibility criterion

Mumbai: A public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed before the Bombay high court on Monday, seeking relaxation of the eligibility criterion for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), the test that is conducted for admission to engineering colleges like the IITs and NITs

Mumbai: A public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed before the Bombay high court on Monday, seeking relaxation of the eligibility criterion for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), the test that is conducted for admission to engineering colleges like the IITs and NITs. A student appearing for JEE has to score a minimum of 75 percent in the Class 12 exams.

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The PIL filed by activist Anubha Srivastava Sahai has also asked for the postponement of the JEE exams to April 2023. A notification issued by the National Testing Agency on December 15 had said that the JEE Mains were scheduled to be conducted between January 24 and January 31, 2023.

As regards the lowering of the eligibility criterion, the PIL highlights the fact that until last year, the 75 percent standard was not applicable, and the “sudden change in eligibility” would affect lakhs of students. “The eligibility… will hit students who can score very high in the Mains examination but may not have 75 percent minimum marks in their board examinations,” it says. The criterion of 75 percent was relaxed for two years during the pandemic (see box).

Sahai, a lawyer who is also a member of the India-Wide Parents Association, has also submitted that the announcement of the schedule was done at very short notice and clashes with the Class 12 state board examinations, the pre-board examinations, the viva-voce of CBSE and ICSE and several other state board examinations. The CBSE Class 12 boards will begin on February 15, 2023, while practical exams will be conducted in the month of January.

“Most of the state boards have scheduled their pre-board and board examinations for the month of January 2023. Therefore, students will find it difficult to appear for the Mains examination. The Mains examination planned in January 2023 is non-beneficial to them because they won’t appear for the exam,” the PIL states. Sahai claimed that normally the JEE exams are declared three to four months prior to the schedule, giving enough time to students to prepare. She, therefore, sought deferment of the exam to April 2023 or any other convenient date after discussions with the respective education boards.

What is the 75 percent criterion?

Candidates who want admission to the IITs and NITs in 2023 need to score 75 percentage aggregate marks in their Class 12 exams as specified in the information brochure of JEE (Advanced) 2019, which was before the pandemic. The relaxation was introduced in the year 2020. The JEE (Advanced) information brochure of that year specified that candidates needed to pass the Class XII (or equivalent) board exam in physics, chemistry, mathematics, a language and one more subject apart from these four. This relaxation continued until JEE (Advanced) 2022.