Breaking: Bombay High Court Refuses To Order Postponement Of JEE Mains 2023

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to restrain National Testing Agency from conducting JEE Mains 2023 examination on the scheduled dates.

"Any orders passed to postpone may have a cascading effect...If a student does not fare well in JEE January, he can compete in April. Extraordinary circumstances don't seem to exist. It would not be appropriate to restrain the respondent from conducting a pan India exam," said the bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne. 

Bombay High Court hearing a PIL challenging eligibility criteria of minimum 75% 12th boards marks and seeking postponement of JEE Mains 2023.@DG_NTA#BombayHighCourt #JEEMain2023 pic.twitter.com/bMFT0x1UaW

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) January 10, 2023

The hearing today was restricted to the issue of dates of the exam. 

Observing that the issue of 75% eligibility criteria is relevant at the stage of admissions after June 2023, the court posted the matter to February for consideration of that issue.

The order was passed in a PIL seeking deferment of the upcoming JEE Mains examination. It also challenges the eligibility criterion of 75 percent marks in Class XII.

"The respondent no. 1 (National Testing Agency) failed to appreciate the fact that many students appearing for the upcoming exams are the students from the batches of the pandemic period. Those students were evaluated on different scales/parameters which necessarily don't reflect the actual capabilities of the candidates," the petition filed by activist Anubha Srivastava contends.

The PIL challenged a notification issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on December 15, 2022, declaring dates of JEE Mains, 2023 from January 24 to 31, 2023 and providing the minimum eligibility criteria.

According to the petition, the notification has been issued at a short notice of only 40 days as compared to the usual 3 to 4 months in the previous years. Further, the schedule clashes with the board practical examinations, pre-board examinations, internal assessments, vivas, etc. of various boards.

The court was told that many other competitive exams are also scheduled in January 2023 and will clash with JEE Mains. NDA SSB interview has been scheduled for January 23 to 27, 2023, and students appearing for JEE Mains may miss out on the same, according to the petition.

Case Title: Anubha Shrivastava Sahai v. NTA

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Bom) 18

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