The Bombay High Court heard the matter pertaining to the 75 per cent eligibility criteria in the JEE Main 2023 exam today, April 24. A bench comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep V Marne presided over the hearing.
Earlier this year, a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) was filed by advocate-activist Anubha Sahai challenging the National Testing Agency's (NTA) decision to re-introduce the 75 per cent eligibility criteria after the pandemic years, in the JEE Main exam. This criterion allows only those students who secured a minimum of 75 per cent in their Class XII board exam or secured a position among the top 20 percentile under a state board, to write the Engineering entrance test.
The matter has been pending in the High Court for about two months now, due to which, the bench mentioned that they couldn't keep postponing the matter, when Advocate Rui Rodriguez, counsel for the NTA, sought another postponement today, informed Anubha. However, NTA submitted that they are collecting the data from various boards about the top 20 percentile and the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) will submit the (counter) affidavit, as mentioned in a tweet by LiveLaw. Thus, they needed more time and a postponement till May 2 was asked for.
Advocate Joseph Thattil, appearing on behalf of the petitioners (students), mentioned that they had to apply for other courses as well. "To this, the court replied that a postponement wouldn't hamper students' chances of applying for other exams. Also, since the JEE Main results are set to be declared later, and the JEE Advanced exam is in June, the bench observed that there is time," Anubha said.
Nonetheless, the bench directed for the hearing to be scheduled on Thursday, April 27. "But due to the unavailability of the ASG on that date, the matter was listed for May 2," Anubha explained.
