JEE Main 2023: Bombay High Court to hear plea seeking exam postponement on January 10

NEW DELHI: The Bombay High Court will now hear the plea seeking postponement of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2023 and withdrawal of 75 percent eligibility criteria on January 10, 2023. The court has given time to the petitioner to file the JEE Main 2023 brochure.

A bench of acting chief justice SV Gangpurwala and J Sandeep V Marne will be hearing the petition. “The only difficulty is that the last date for registration is approaching. My lords may keep it on Monday, I will file tomorrow,” said the petitioner during the hearing. However, the court denied and said, “You should have filed with the petition. Matter on January 10.”

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The petition was filed by child rights activist Anubha Srivastava Sahai. When the petitioner told the court that JEE Mains 2023 dates are clashing with board exams 2023 and that the 75% eligibility criteria brought back this year will affect lakhs of students, advocate Rui Rodriguez appearing for the National Testing Agency (NTA) said that the criteria is for marks in Class 12 exams.

Rodriguez said that the Class 12 score is considered for the admission and not for eligibility for appearing in JEE Main 2023 exam. Upon this, the petitioner’s counsel said that there's no point in appearing in the entrance exam if the candidate does not have the score.

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NTA removed the JEE Main 75% criteria last year as a one-time measure due to academic loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. The petition argued that the pre-board exams, viva voce of CBSE, ICSE and other state boards are scheduled in January. The clash between JEE Main 2023 and pre-board exams will result in less number of students appearing for JEE Main January 2023 session.

The plea also stated that the NTA in the past used to declare the IIT JEE Main 2023 exam dates two to three months prior to the exam. However, the announcement of exams in such short notice will not give enough time for preparation.