JEE Mains 2023 Postponement and Eligibility relaxation hearing in Bombay High Court: Here's what happened

The Bombay High Court presided over the matter of postponement and relaxation in the eligibility criteria for IIT JEE Mains 2023 exam, which was scheduled to begin on January 24, late Tuesday evening. The court hearing concluded with the following updates:

Students’ demands

The students and student representatives were seeking a postponement of the phase one of the IIT JEE Mains, national engineering entrance exams, which was scheduled to take place between January 24 to January 31 across the county. The student representatives argued that the exams clash with the pre-boards and board exam preparation of JEE aspirants. Moreover, a relaxation in the requirement for minimum 75 per cent marks for admission to IIT colleges across India was also requested by the petitioners.

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Court ruling regarding postponement of exam

The judges presiding over the hearing, Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne, ruled that the exam would not be postponed and would be held by the National Testing Agency (NTA) as per the earlier released schedule because a postponement would have a cascading effect on further legs of the exam.

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

The registration for JEE Mains 2023 is in process and the window for the same will close on January 12, Thursday. As per the court ruling, the January leg of the exam will be conducted on 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31 across India.

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 Relaxation in eligibility criteria

Student representatives were also seeking a relaxation in the eligibility criteria for the IIT JEE Mains and Advanced exams. The court ordered that the relaxation in eligibility criteria would be discussed at a later date. The Additional Chief Justice has ordered the student representatives to file a rejoinder, i.e. a second pleading, in response to the NTA’s arguments regarding the eligibility criteria.

The way forward

The court announced that the next pleading in the case would be on February 21, 2023, post the phase one of the engineering entrance exams. The petitioners would be allowed to present a case for relaxation in the eligibility criteria.

It is worth noting that the Education Ministry under Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has also been mulling over providing relaxation in the eligibility criteria for JEE aspirants, as previously reported by Business Today.

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