On January 10, the Bombay High Court refused to reschedule the date for the first session of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2023 — scheduled to begin on January 24. A petition was filed by Advocate Anubha Shrivastava on December 26, requesting the postponement of the exam date and relaxation of the 75% eligibility criteria. Although the High Court ruled against the petition regarding rescheduling the exam, it will hear the appeal for an extra attempt and the 75% eligibility criteria issue on February 21. Advocate Shrivastava took to Twitter to state, "Issue of 75% criteria, one more attempt for 2021 aspirants will be taken up. Jan attempt will not be rescheduled as court refused to intervene. For one more attempt they will hear and decide."
After High Court refused to allow the postponement of JEE Main Session I, the candidates are seeking an extra attempt in May as an interim relief. To recall, the dates for JEE Main 2023 were announced on December 15, just 40 days before the exam date. The candidates were in an uproar due to the short notice, with several board exams clashing with the JEE dates. Further, the counselling for JEE 2022 concluded only in November last year. Students complained that the news came out of the blue as the National Testing Agency (NTA) rushed to regularise the dates according to the pre-pandemic calendar. "We requested another attempt for the candidates since there will be no postponement," says Shrivastava
The High Court had opined that students could still appear in the second session of JEE Main in April even if they failed to attempt Session I or performed poorly in it. However, when Anubha Shrivastava previously spoke to EdexLive, she informed us that this solution is faulty and would result in students performing poorly in both attempts, especially the freshers who will have their Board exams during the April session.
What's up with the glitch in the eligibility criteria?
The 75% marks in the Class XII Board exam were eased in the last couple of years due to the pandemic; however, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati — the institute conducting JEE Main 2023 — reinstituted it again this year. Droppers who gained admission to NITs (National Institutes of Technology) and IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) but dropped out to improve their rank, will become ineligible for the same institutes this year. Additionally, scoring 75% is difficult in a couple of state boards like Bihar.
Against the backdrop of ongoing calls for easing the eligibility criteria, the Ministry of Education (MoE) announced that the top 20 percentile students of each board will also now be eligible to seek admission to NITs and IITs in case they fall short of the 75% mark. Anubha warns, however, that it still has a flaw and may not be entirely inclusive. She says, "Students from Boards that will not declare their top 20 percentile will have to get a certificate from the Board saying that they belong to the top 20 percentile. If the students are unable to do so, their 20 percentile will be calculated according to CBSE. This is absurd because CBSE's top 20 percentile goes beyond 85%."
Shrivastava continues by saying that this will unfairly disadvantage students from boards where it is tough to achieve high scores. She also insists that most students did not fully comprehend what the new regulation implied and it is a serious concern that requires proper understanding.