The Supreme Court on Friday restrained the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) till further orders from conducting counselling or admitting students subsequent to this year’s Joint Entrance Examination.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and A.M. Khanwilkar also restrained the High Courts from entertaining any petition relating to counselling and admissions to the IITs from July 7 onwards.
It sought details of the petitions pending before the High Courts and the number of petitions challenging the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) 2017 rank list, and awarding of additional marks to all candidates who appeared for the test.
The Bench listed the matter for further hearing on July 10.
On June 30, the court issued notice to the Ministry of Human Resource Development on a plea seeking the quashing of the IIT-JEE 2017 rank list.
The petition, filed by IIT aspirant Aishwarya Agarwal, sought the court’s direction to declare that the action of awarding “bonus marks” to the candidates who appeared in the JEE (Advanced) 2017 examination was wrong and violated her right, as well as that of other students.
It sought a direction to prepare an all-India rank list after rectifying the scores of JEE (Advanced) and also award marks for the incorrect questions to those who attempted the right answers.
As an alternative, the petitioner said, the institution should conduct fresh examination and prepare a fresh merit list or grant all students another opportunity to appear in the next year examination.
The petition also sought an interim stay on the merit list and the counselling, saying it would cause serious prejudice to the petitioner and other deserving candidates.
(Source: The Hindu)