The Bombay High Court refused relief to an 18-year-old student, who sought a direction from the court for his JEE Advanced registration form to be accepted. The student also sought to be permitted to appear for the exam which is due on June 4.
The boy, Atharva Desai, failed to submit his online form for JEE Advanced due to a technical glitch. He claimed in his petition that he lived in a rural area with frequent power outages, because of which he was unable to register himself online in the given time frame, according to a report by PTI.
The Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs opposed the plea on the ground that as per their records, Desai logged into the portal for the first time to fill the form a day after the deadline. Hence, no relief ought to be granted to him.
On May 24, a vacation bench of Justices Abhay Ahuja and Milind Sathaye accepted the JAB's argument and said that it could not disturb the discipline adopted by the institution in the larger interest of lakhs of aspiring meritorious students of the country. The order copy was made available on May 29.
"It is not in doubt that IITs, NITs and other institutes are centres of technical studies par excellence in India. The process of finding the best talent in this country is based on discipline which is of utmost importance in the field of education," the court observed.
As per the information brochure issued by the IIT, the time frame provided for registration for JEE-Advanced was from April 30 to May 7. "This is a sufficiently long period for all candidates to complete registration, even assuming difficulties such as internet glitches and power outages. The candidates who are placed in a less advantageous situation, such as the petitioner, have sufficient time to reach places having better connectivity and power supply," the court said.
"We fail to understand why the petitioner was not able to log in on the portal the previous eight days when the window for registration was open. There is no explanation from the petitioner on this. It is not possible to accept Desai's contention that he was unable to register for the exam within the time frame due to an internet glitch or power outage," the bench said.
It also noted that Desai had not once attempted to contact the IIT's admission board seeking redressal of his grievance. "The rules laid down for participating in JEE Advanced were binding on all candidates and dismissed the petition," the court stated, as per a report by PTI.
