The Bombay High Court has been hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the eligibility criteria for admission to prestigious Indian institutions like IITs, NITs, and IIITs. The petitioner, Anubha Srivastava Sahai said that the eligibility criteria is unfair to the students and should be either removed or relaxed.
The eligibility criteria for admission into IITs and NITs state that only those students having at least 75 per cent marks in their Class XII examination or are in the top 20 percentile of their respective Boards will be eligible. The criteria were removed for two years, in 2021 and 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body which conducts the exam, reinstated the same for this year.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep V Marne dismissed a PIL seeking relaxation of the eligibility criteria. “We cannot consider at this stage…It is for the government to decide,” the court said. The Bombay High Court will give its final verdict on the relaxation of 75% criteria/top 20 percentile in JEE Main 2023 today.
During a hearing in the matter on Tuesday, May 2, the court said that allowing relaxation would affect other students who have scored above 75% marks in their board exams. Moreover, it added that since the examination is pan-India and not just limited to Maharashtra, the court has its own limitations.