IIT JEE Mains 2022 : Supreme Court Allows Candidates To Raise Grievances Against Reduction Of Sessions Before NTA

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed IIT- JEE aspirants, who approached the Court challenging the notice dated March 1, 2022, issued by National Testing Agency reducing the sessions of JEE Mains 2022 from 4 to 2, to submit a representation before the concerned authorities raising their grievances.

A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Bela Trivedi said that the Court cannot interfere with the policy decision of the authorities; however, the bench granted the petitioners liberty to approach the authorities with their grievances.

The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the reduction of the sessions will make the test more stringent.

"How do we now keep on interfering any policy? They have not changed the eligibility, course content or syllabus. Where do you have vested right?", Justice Chandrachud said.

"We will give you liberty to make representation with regard to this. When are the exams?", Justice Chandrachud asked.

"First is on April 21. At least 50% are board exams students", the counsel replied.

The bench disposed of the writ petition with the following order :

"Petitioners are aggrieved with the notification dated March 1, 2022 (amended on March 14, 2022) by which 2 sessions have been granted for JEE Mains 2022. The contention is that reduction from 4 sessions to 2 sessions would cause hardship.Since matter pertains to policy domain we can permit the petitioners to submit representation to competent authority for due consideration. Petition is disposed of"

It has been argued in the petition that for the applicant's benefits, NTA by way of notification in December 2020 had decided to conduct JEE Mains 2021 in 4 Sessions and best of the score for each applicant had to be finalised for his admission in engineering courses across the Country. 

The petitioners have further stated that numerous representations were made to NTA since December 2021 but there was no response nor public notice informing the Applicants that JEE Mains will be conducted in 2 Sessions only.

It was also argued in the plea that shockingly, as late as March 15 2022 it was notified that only two sessions would be held and scheduled in April and May 2022 i.e only about 45 days before the scheduled Exam overlapping/close proximity with various Board Exams.

The petition has been filed through Advocate Sumanth Nookala.

Case Title: Krishna Rana & Ors v National Testing Agency & Anr| WP(c) 204/2022.

Click Here To Read/Download Order