The Supreme Court on Monday, May 29, dismissed a plea challenging the 75 per cent eligibility criteria of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). A vacation bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and KV Vishwanathan said that it was not inclined to intervene in the matter.

Observing that the criteria existed earlier as well, the court said these are education matters and it has to defer the issue to experts. "This condition was always there, why should we interfere? This is not a matter we want to get into," the bench stated, as per a report by PTI.

The plea challenging the criteria was filed by students, one of whom was Chandan Kumar. The criteria mandate that students with more than 75 per cent in their Class XII board examinations, or who have secured a place among the top 20 percentile scorers would be eligible for the counselling, which is starting from June 4.

The counsel appearing for the petitioners contended the students were given a waiver during the COVID-19 pandemic and the same students now have greater chances to clear the examination for admission to the prestigious engineering institutes. "They have scored more than 98 per cent in JEE (Main). These are meritorious students. Kindly allow them," the counsel said.

The lawyer further submitted that one of the petitioners has scored 92 percentile in JEE Main and is eligible to appear in JEE Advance. However, she would not get admission even if she qualifies as her board exam score is less than 75 per cent, as per PTI.