SC notice to HRD ministry, IITs on JEE reforms

Supreme Court has issued notices to the IITs and the human resource development ministry over a special leave petition demanding a probe into repeated discrepancies and errors in the IIT Joint Entrance Examination since 2006.

Supreme Court has issued notices to the IITs and the human resource development ministry over a special leave petition demanding a probe into repeated discrepancies and errors in the IIT Joint Entrance Examination since 2006.

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The SLP, filed by IIT Kharagpur professor Rajeev Kumar, also seeks thorough reforms in the IIT-JEE, accusing examination organisers of opacity in the conduct of the test.

Details revealed through the Right to Information Act had shown the IITs violated their own procedure for determining cut-offs during the 2006 admissions, denying 994 deserving candidates seats.

The cut-offs fluctuated wildly over the next two years, while the 2009 IIT-JEE was marred by errors in the Math question paper worth enough marks to impact the qualification opportunities of students.

The IIT-JEE this year too witnessed several errors in the question papers, prompting outrage among students. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar even wrote to HRD minister Kapil Sibal demanding that the test be re-conducted.