The Delhi High Court slapped fines of Rs 30,000 each on two candidates who claimed irregularities in the conduct of the Joint Entrance Exam Main exam 2025 (JEE Mains 2025), stating that they failed to properly establish their bona fides to substantiate their case.
Justice Vikas Mahajan issued the ruling, citing the 'abundant efforts' made by multiple government agencies to investigate the candidates' charges and the veracity of their assertions.
"The imposition of such cost will be deterrent for unscrupulous litigants from approaching Courts with unclean hands," the order said, as reported by LiveLaw.
The candidates’ pleas
The candidates requested permission to compete in JEE Advanced 2025, claiming that they were not able to qualify because of discrepancies in the exam. It was also requested that the actual results for both sessions be provided based on their correct and original response sheets.
Directions were also sought from the National Testing Agency (NTA) to build and employ a strong system to detect digital footprints, including but not limited to digital watermarking and tracking technology, to uncover possible exam-related breaches.
The candidates claimed manipulation and tampering with official records kept by the government. It was alleged that the scores for Session I published by NTA had since been modified upon the release of the final scorecard post-Session 2.
One of the candidates also claimed that there were abnormalities in his attempt during Session II.
Candidates’ case not strong enough, said Delhi HC
The Court rejected their plea, noting that the National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory (NCFL) experts' assessment stated that, while files detailing the two candidates' scorecards could be retrieved on their laptops, the browser history for the relevant time could not be identified.
It further stated that the candidates in question did not provide a convincing explanation for why there was no browsing history throughout the relevant time period.
Furthermore, Justice Mahajan stated that the Court was not convinced to believe the petitioners' claim that their scorecards were retrieved from the official website of the record issued by the NTA.
On the other hand, NTA has been able to demonstrate that, according to official documents, petitioners received the corresponding percentiles as reported in the final composite scorecards, it noted.
