The Supreme Court has asked the National Testing Agency to treat plea as representation filed by JEE-Mains 2022 aspirants, seeking directions to quash the recent notice issued by the Testing agency, alleging that the decision to reduce the sessions of JEE-Mains from four to two is belated, manifestly arbitrary and results in indirect discrimination.
A three-Judge Bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Bela M. Trivedi noted that the matter pertained to policy domain. Hence, the petitioners were permitted to submit a representation to the competent authority for consideration.
During the hearing today, AOR Sumanth Nookala, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that reduction in the session will make the test more stringent. On this, the Bench questioned, how can it interfere in policy matters.
He submitted that petitioners were young students in the age group of 17 to 18 years, who were appearing/ had appeared for their Class 12 examination from various schools across India.
The JEE Main 2022, is overlapping with their board exams, they contended.
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On this, the bench opined that a representation could be submitted to the competent authority.
“The decision of the competent authority will, however, not furnish any basis for initiating a fresh round of litigation before this court since the matter pertains to a matter of policy”
-noted the bench in its order.
The plea contended that,
“All petitioners are willing to appear in JEE-Mains 2022 for admission to Engineering Colleges across India. Petitioner no 1-11 are currently in Class 12 and will be appearing for their board exams this year. They had planned their preparation in accordance with 4 attempts for JEE Mains. The sudden reduction of the number of attempts at very last moment just 45 days before the exam without giving any prior notification has greatly disrupted their preparation. The candidates are greatly worried over their future/career and have been forced to consider not appearing for JEE Mains and are afraid that they might lose a year.”
“Whereas, Petitioner no 12 and 13 have taken a drop to improve their rank in JEE Mains and thereby get a better college to pursue higher education. Both had taken a drop expecting 4 attempts of JEE Mains to be held this year like last year and had planned their preparation accordingly. The abrupt reduction of the number of attempts to 2 just 1 month prior to the exam has greatly disturbed the preparation of the candidate,” said the plea.
The plea had challenged the public notice which was issued by the National Testing Agency, notifying only 2 sessions of JEE Main 2022 from April 21st to May 4th and 24th May to 29th May 2022. The notice also highlight that no correction will be permitted once the application form submitted.