Plea before Bombay High Court seeks deferment of IIT JEE Mains exam, relaxation of 75% score eligibility criteria

A petition has been filed before Bombay High Court seeking deferment of the IIT JEE Mains examination scheduled to be held in January 2023 [Anubha Sahai v. National Testing Agency & Ors.].The petition filed on Monday by activist Anubha Srivastava Sahai, has prayed that the exam be postponed to April 2023.The plea has further sought relaxation of the 75% score in higher secondary examination which is the eligibility criterion for giving the IIT exam.The plea, which is a public interest litigation (PIL) petition, has challenged a notification issued in this regard by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on December 15. As per the notification, JEE Mains is scheduled to be conducted between January 24 to 31, 2023. The PIL stated that this announcement of the schedule was done on a very short notice and it clashed with 12th grade board examinations, pre-board examinations, viva-voce of CBSE, ICSE and several other State board examinations. "Most of the State boards have scheduled their Pre-board and board examinations in the month of January 2023. Therefore, students will find it difficult to appear in the Mains examination. Therefore the Mains examination planned in January 2023 is non-benficial to them because they won't appear for the exam," the PIL stated. Sahai claimed that normally the exams are declared 3-4 months prior to the schedule, giving enough time for students to prepare for the examinations. The petitioner, therefore, sought deferment of the exam to April 2023 or any other convenient date after discussions with respective education boards..Sahai also sought relaxation of the eligibility criteria of 75% score in the higher secondary (standard XII) examinations to minimum passing score.The PIL highlighted that until last year the eligibility criteria of 75% was not applicable.With this sudden change in eligibility, lakhs of students may be affected, it was submitted. "The eligibility of 75% in Higher Secondary Class Board Examinations will hit lakhs of students who can score very high in the Mains examination but may not have 75% minimum marks in their board examinations," the PIL said.