The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the petitioners who had withdrawn from their programmes between November 5 and November 18, 2024, to take the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Advanced.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih passed the order while hearing the pleas against bringing down from three to two, the attempts given to JEE-Advanced aspirants.
The apex court noted the joint admission board, entrusted with conducting the JEE-Advanced examination, had issued a press release on November 5 last year which said students who appeared for the class 12 examination in academic years 2023, 2024, and 2025 would be eligible to appear for the JEE-Advanced.
The bench further said on November 18, 2024, another press release was issued restricting the eligibility only to two academic years — 2024 and 2025.
"If the students, acting on the said representation (of November 5), have dropped from their course with an understanding that they would be entitled to appear for JEE examination, the withdrawal of the promise on November 18, 2024 cannot be permitted to act to their detriment," the bench held.
Without going into the merits of the decision of JAB, the top court decided that students who had dropped out between November 5 and November 18, 2024 would be allowed to register for the test.
The top court was hearing two petitions, which included one by 22 aspirants challenging the reduction in the number of attempts available to aspirants for JEE-Advanced from three to two.
In the hearing, it was reported by the counsel who appeared for the petitioners, that they have dropped colleges as they opted for the test taken for the entrance to the elitist IITs because of the promise done in the press release on 5th of November, 2024.
Another plea, filed through advocate Sanjeet Kumar Trivedi, said the matter related to the process for admissions into the IITs and the JAB changed the eligibility criteria for students in an "arbitrary" manner.
The JAB, vide its press release dated November 5, 2024, first fixed the permissible number of attempts for JEE-Advanced at three, only to change it abruptly vide another press release dated November 18, 2024, and thereby reducing the number of attempts to two," an aspirant's plea said.
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