"You cannot expect 75% from those who have no chance of regaining things back,” says Shubhang Sheel, an aspirant, on the 75% criteria levied for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains 2023 candidates. He continues,“You are setting eligibility criteria for a sports team that has already formed, practised and invested their time and energy. What makes that fair?” The criteria of 75% marks in the Class XII Board exam was relaxed due to the pandemic; however, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati — the institute conducting JEE Mains 2023 — implemented it again this year. The petition filed to the Bombay High Court (HC) by advocate Anubha Shrivastava on December 26, calls for this qualifying requirement to be relaxed and that the exam date moved to April.
The All India Student's Union (AISU) also wrote a letter to the Director of IIT Guwahati on December 22 regarding the 75% eligibility criteria, stating, "Many state boards (such as Bihar and UP boards) are relatively difficult to score, making it difficult for a student to score 75%. Last year students were eligible for NITS (National Institute of Technology), IITs, and IIITs irrespective of their board percentage but this year they are not eligible with the same percentage.” (sic) The National General Secretary of AISU, Navneet Singh, informs that their letter is still doing the rounds amongst officers and they have received no update. The AISU also wrote to the Union Education Minister but got no response from that end either. "The Court might relax the eligibility criteria, but it is unlikely they will postpone the dates. It will say that it is a question of policy and refuse to be involved," explains Navneet.
No hope?
Chinmay Dhongd, another aspirant, does not believe that the National Testing Agency (NTA) will change the dates or the eligibility criteria. He says, "We have already mailed NTA, but the response has been negative. It depends on the judge who will be hearing the case." However, others believe there might be some hope for the eligibility criteria to change but none for the rescheduling of dates. Sudhanshu Sardul from Bihar says, "NEET aspirants already tried it last year, but nothing positive came of it. The dates were not postponed and the petition was rejected on the day of the exam itself. It is great that someone is taking a step on our behalf, but we cannot sit in the hope that this will improve the situation."
NTA announced the JEE Mains 2023 notification at only one month's notice and the dates conflict with other Board exam dates. As a result, the aspirants are in disarray and quite a few students who have taken a drop do not have the required 75% in Boards to qualify. In particular, considering that JEE 2022 counselling concluded in November, most applicants anticipated the dates to be in April. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed at the Bombay High Court, shared with EdexLive, states, "Many students...(applying) for the present JEE exams are from the Batches of 2020-21 and 2021-22 who had been assessed in their board examination on the basis of their performance in the previous examinations as their board examinations were cancelled. The marks scored by them is not a true reflection of their actual ability therefore those students with less marks than the eligibility criteria (75%) for this year's examinations can score very high marks in the upcoming JEE Mains, 2023...." (sic)
Not the end of the world
The aspirants, however, find peace in the fact that JEE is not the end of the world. While few place their hope in the next session of JEE in April, others look forward to opportunities ahead. "This is not the end of the world. If the dates and eligibility criteria don't change, we will have other options to look forward to," concludes a hopeful Chinmay.
It is important to note that the last two months witnessed at least four suicide in the student community in Kota owing to academic pressure.
