NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on January 10 refused to interfere with the decision of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) to reduce the number of attempts of the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) to two from three.
However, it gave relief to the students who challenged the decision, saying that that the students who dropped out of their courses between November 5, 2024, and November 18, 2024, will be allowed to appear for the examination.
A Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by some candidates, challenging JAB’s decision take in November 2024 to reduce the number of attempts.
The JAB on November 5, 2024, allowed three attempts for the JEE (Advanced), but reversed the decision within two weeks.
ALSO READ: Third Attempt Criteria For JEE-Advanced 2025 Withdrawn, Students Can Write Test Twice
The JAB said that only two attempts would be given for the exam.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the JAB, defended the move.
“The decision was taken after it was found that students who had enrolled in regular engineering courses were focusing on JEE exams instead of their B.Tech coursework. This decision was made in the students’ interest and is a pure policy decision,” he told the top court .
In their plea in the apex court, some petitioners had said that they had dropped out of their engineering courses after the November 5 decision of increasing the number of attempts to three.
“The JAB, vide its press release dated November 5, 2024, first fixed the permissible number of attempts for JEE-Advanced at three, only to change it abruptly vide another press release dated November 18, 2024, and thereby reducing the number of attempts to two,” PTI quoted from the petition.
“The abrupt changes in the eligibility criteria has affected the petitioner as well as thousands of similarly situated persons denying them a valuable opportunity to enter the IITs. The plea said the change in eligibility criteria was against the principles of natural justice and the impugned notification is also in violation of principles of legitimate expectation and promissory estoppel,” the plea added.
The Supreme Court Bench said: “If students, acting on this representation, withdrew from their courses believing they would be entitled to appear, the withdrawal of this promise on Nov. 18, 2024, cannot work to their detriment. In the peculiar facts and circumstances, without commenting on the merits of JAB’s decision, students who withdrew from their courses and dropped out between Nov. 5, 2024, and Nov. 18, 2024, will be permitted to register for JEE (Advanced).”
The court made it clear that it was not questioning the wisdom of the authorities.