IIT JEE Advanced: SC dismisses plea against eligibility criterion of 75 pc marks in Class 12 board exams

New Delhi [India], May 29 : The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the eligibility criterion of a 75 per cent score in Class 12 (or equivalent) board examination for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

A vacation bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and KV Vishwanathan declined to intervene in the issue saying this prerequisite existed earlier as well. The bench said these are education matters and it has to leave the issue to experts.

"2016, 2017, 2018... This condition was always there that students must have secured 75 per cent, why should we interfere? This is not a matter we want to get into," the bench said.

The rule requiring Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) candidates to have at least 75 per cent aggregate marks in the Class 12 board examination was waived during the Covid-19 pandemic but subsequently revived.

The apex court was hearing a plea challenging an eligibility criterion for taking the JEE, through which admission to various undergraduate programmes across IITs is carried out. The criterion challenged in the plea required candidates to have secured a minimum of 75 per cent in the aggregate in their Class 12 (or equivalent) board examination.

The plea has submitted that the students were given a waiver during the Covid-19 pandemic and the same students now have greater chances to clear the examination for admission to the prestigious engineering institutes.

The lawyer for the aspirants submitted that the applicant has scored 92 percentile in JEE Mains and is eligible to appear in JEE Advance, however, she will not get admission even if she qualifies as her board exam score is less than 75 per cent.