Plea Before Kerala High Court Alleges No Arrangements Were Made At JEE Advanced Exam Centre; Candidate Seeks Permission To Appear Again

A plea has been filed before the Kerala High Court through Advocate K. Shaj that in one of the JEE examination centres, no arrangements were made by the concerned authorities and that a student was thereby prevented from appearing in the examination.

The petitioner was a candidate for the JEE (Advanced) Examination 2021 having qualified for the Mains for being admitted to any one of the 23 IITs across India.

It has also been mentioned that he passed his Class XII in the C.B.S.E. syllabus in 2020 with 90% marks. He aspires to do his graduation in Engineering from any of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in India. 

After passing Class XII in 2020, he appeared for JEE– Advanced. However, the petitioner failed to qualify for the Main Examination.

In such circumstances, the petitioner earnestly started preparation for appearing again for the JEE –Advanced for the academic year 2021-2022.

The petitioner belongs to OBC – Non-Creamy Layer category and is also eligible for reservation benefits.

Accordingly, he was allotted admit card this year and his examination centre was the college of the Sree Narayana Institute of Technology in the Pathanamthitta District. 

However, on the date of examination, no arrangements were allegedly made by the Joint Admission Board of IIT and the other respondents and the petitioner was thereby prevented from appearing in the examination.

The petitioner found the college premises closed. At around 8 am, no officials had entered the college for conducting the examination, he enquired with the security guards.

The guards then informed the petitioner that they didn't have any information of any examination being conducted in college that day. Later, he found that the college was not even made an Examination Centre for conducting the entrance examination. 

Despite several attempts to clarify the situation, it went in vain. 

In the plea, the petitioner has sought a direction to the respondents to conduct an examination for him forthwith and to keep aside a seat in the IITs by reckoning the rank that he may acquire. 

He further seeks that the JEE (Advanced) Examination Rank List 2021 be kept in abeyance till his result is published.

It was also submitted that due to the negligence of the respondents, the petitioner was not able to write the examinations. The petitioner was deprived of his right to appear for the said examination. 

"The callous and irresponsible attitude of respondents 3 and 4, as a result of which the petitioner was not able to appear for the JEE (Advanced) 2021 Examination has infringed the fundamental rights of the petitioner," the plea reads.

Such inaction on part of the respondents resulted in denial of the right of the petitioner to appear for the JEE (Advanced) 2021 Examination is unjust, illegal and a violation of his fundamental right, the petition alleges.

Therefore, the plea prayed that the National Testing Agency may be directed to keep aside a seat in one of the IITs to enable the petitioner to join the IIT in accordance with the rank he achieves.

The petitioner also sought a directive to the respondents to make arrangements for allowing the petitioner to appear for JEE (Advanced) 2021 Examination forthwith, pending disposal of this writ petition.  

Case Title: Navaneeth P Krishna v. Union of India & Ors.