Bombay High Court refuses to postpone IIT-JEE Mains exam 2023

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to postpone the IIT JEE Mains examination scheduled to be held in January 2023. .A bench of acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne held that there are no extraordinary circumstances warranting postponement of the exam."If any orders are passed today directing postponement of January exams, the same may have cascading effect on future exams also. The extraordinary circumstances do not appear to exist for restraining respondents from holding January examination. Lakhs of students must have been preparing for exam," the Court observed in the order..The order was passed on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by child rights activist Anubha Srivastava Sahai praying that the exam be postponed to April 2023.The plea challenged a notification issued in this regard by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on December 15. As per the notification, JEE Mains were scheduled to be conducted between January 24 to 31, 2023.Advocate Joseph Thate appearing for Sahai stated that this announcement of the schedule was done on a very short notice and it clashed with 12th grade board examinations, pre-board examinations, viva-voce of CBSE, ICSE and several other State board examinations.His contention was that normally dates of this premium exam were declared 3-4 months prior to the schedule, giving enough time for students to prepare for the examinations."Schedule was declared in December 2022 and hardly 40 days time is accorded. Though an exam in April is another opportunity, still each and every attempt is counted," Thate submitted. .Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for NTA, opposed the relief pointing out that JEE Mains exams are normally scheduled in two sessions since 2019 - January and April.He pointed out that if a student does not fare well in January, he can appear in April for improvement and better marks between the two is considered.He added that if a student does not appear in January, there is no bar for him to appear in April..After hearing both parties briefly, the bench orally opined that the exam is to be held in lakhs of centres and may of the students have begun preparations in full swing. "Your PIL may affect 50,000 students, but not affect 5 lakh students. A Supreme Court judgment says that even if an educational policy is not good, the Courts ought not intervene. In educational matters, judicial review is negligible" the Bench underscored. It, therefore, declined to grant the prayer..The plea further sought relaxation of the 75% score in higher secondary examination which is the eligibility criterion for giving the IIT exam.The High Court will consider this issue on February 21. .Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.