IIT JEE Mains: Bombay High Court rejects PIL seeking relaxation of 75% eligibility criteria

The Bombay High Court today rejected the public interest litigation seeking relaxation of the 75% score in higher secondary examination which is the eligibility criterion for admission to IITs..A division bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne observed that it cannot intervene at this stage and it was for the government authorities to consider and take a decision."The students, whose cause petitioner is arguing, neither have any vested right nor legitimate expectation to claim relaxation in the eligibility criteria for admissions during the current year. Since grant of relaxation is a policy decision, the same can be taken by the government in appropriate circumstances. This court would not be in a position to direct the government to grant relaxation in the eligibility criteria for admissions" the court held. .The court also found it unnecessary to intervene as the exam was being held pan India and two sessions of the exams had already been conducted. "It is also required to be borne in mind that the JEE is held pan India and thousands, perhaps lakhs, of students participate in the same. This would be another reason why this court would be loathe in interfering in the methodology of conducting JEE and / or admission process", the bench reasoned. .The PIL highlighted that until last year the eligibility criteria of 75% was not applicable.With this sudden change in eligibility, lakhs of students may be affected, it was submitted..Petitioner Anubha Sahai appearing in person argued that the condition had been relaxed since 2021 and the same relaxation could be given to the students of the present academic year. She also contended that the education boards in the State had not declared the top 20 percentile which was also a criteria for admissions..On April 6, the Court asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to file its response to the applications and inform why the qualification criterion of securing 75% marks in board exam was prescribed despite there being a qualifying examination. .NTA claimed that its decision of keeping 75% cut off percentage was conscious and well considered decision taken with the approval of JEE Apex Board (JAB). The relaxation of the criterion for previous academic years was a one time measure..During the hearing yesterday, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for the National Testing Agency (NTA) informed the Court that the policy of 75% criteria was applicable since 2017. He apprised the court that this system was relaxed for academic years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 althought it was only a one time relaxation and temporary in nature. "It is not that we are implementing or re-implementing. This condition was kept in abeyance, and it has been revived. All students were aware of facts of conditions in brochures. There cannot be a legitimate expectation or hope, you have to have right. Just because there was relaxation once, there cannot be an expectation that it would be happen again" Singh argued. .[Read order]