SC Gives Green Signal For IIT, JEE Admissions 2017

Two days after granting stay on counselling and admission to IIT and NIT colleges, the Supreme Court on Monday vacated its previous order and gave a go-ahead for admission for this year.

The court, however, asked the Centre to ensure foolproof mechanism to avoid any error in question papers.

Rejecting two petitions that challenged the grace marks awarded to candidates who appeared in 2017 IIT -JEE examination after it was found that seven questions were missing, a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra accepted the Centre's argument that it would create "confusion” among the candidates.

The bench said its 2005 verdict against awarding bonus marks to all students did not apply for JEE (Mains).

The bench, however, asked the Centre to file an affidavit by October giving details about the measures it will undertake to ensure a foolproof mechanism for IIT-JEE exams next year onwards.

Justice Misra said printing error should not be repeated.

The court also restrained the high courts from hearing any petition relating to IIT-JEE admission 2017.

The bench was hearing petitions filed by Aishwarya Aggarwal, through counsel DK Devesh, against the grace mark awarded to candidates who had not even attempted to answer them.

The petitioner's counsel, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, submitted that due to such marks, even meritorious student got lesser marks.