Another plea in Supreme Court on JEE Advanced third attempt

NEW DELHI: A group of 18 students from across 16 states have filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding to be allowed to participate in the third attempt at the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced for admission in the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).

The petitioners say the Supreme Court judgment from January allowing a JEE Advanced third attempt to students who had dropped out of BTech courses between November 5 and 18 did not bring them relief. This group includes students who joined coaching classes and/or wrote the first session of JEE Main 2025 expecting to have the chance. Admission to the IITs is via a two-tier exam system with JEE Main as the first round and JEE Advanced, the second and final one.

While notifying its policy on JEE Advanced 2025, IIT’s Joint Admission Board (JAB) announced a third attempt at JEE Advanced, a decision they withdrew about two weeks later. Within those two weeks, some students dropped out of BTech programmes they had joined in the hope of writing the IIT JEE again.

While the SC verdict brought relief to this section which dropped out over the two weeks, the current petition demands “an extra attempt” on the grounds that there are meritorious students with bright chances of getting admission into IITs who had spent on preparation and had written the preliminary JEE Main. It also cites previous cases, albeit in the context of recruitment, in which courts had frowned upon rule changes once the process of hiring had already begun.

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IIT JEE third attempt petition

The students’ petition states: “ The decision to revoke the third attempt…. disproportionately impacts students who made educational choices based on the initial announcement. JAB’s actions lack a compelling public interest rationale to justify the harmful effects on the aggrieved students.”

The petition further states, “The abrupt and unexplained reversal of JAB’s policy within 13 days demonstrates a lack of due process or rational basis, thereby amounting to arbitrariness.”

A petitioner, who did not want to be named, said, “The judgment given by the Supreme Court in January is against Article 14 and Article 16 of the Constitution which upholds equal opportunities for everyone. Similar cases regarding recruitment have been argued in Rajasthan, that authorities cannot change the rules in the middle of the game.”