JEE Advanced 2021: SC upholds validity of condition that doesn’t allow IITians to appear for exam

A petition was filed in Calcutta High Court after the application of a student, who had already secured admission in IIT Kharagpur in 2020, was rejected for JEE Advanced 2021.  

The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of condition that mandates that students who have already joined an IIT cannot take the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) Advanced.  

JEE Advanced is scheduled to be conducted on October 3, 2021, by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. As the exam is approaching, another matter was heard in the Supreme Court concerning the exam. The Apex Court has upheld the validity of the condition that students who have already joined an IIT, cannot appear for the exam.  

As per a report published in TimesNow, the verdict was delivered by a Bench comprising Justices Uday Umesh Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi. The Bench heard the matter and after consensus set aside a judgment of the Calcutta High Court that had removed the condition after calling it arbitrary and discriminatory in nature.  

A petition was filed in Calcutta High Court after a student’s application was rejected for JEE Advanced 2021. The ground for this rejection was that the student had already secured admission in IIT Kharagpur in 2020. 

This condition is mentioned in Criteria 5 of the JEE Advanced 2021 Information Brochure. Calcutta High Court had said that there is no bar on a student from a non-IIT to take the exam but there was a bar on a student from IIT to take the exam. Such a condition was clearly discriminatory as students were not getting fair and equal chance. 

Setting aside this High Court judgment, the Apex Court said that this criteria was valid and justified as the aim is to preserve the valuable public resource of IIT seats. Because of this the whole idea behind classifying IITs and non-IITs is also valid and needed. It further said that all academic matters must be left to subject-matter experts and the interference of legal world should be minimal in every possible way. 

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