While refusing to exercise extraordinarily writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, the Bombay High Court held that discipline such as JEE Advanced examination in the present case, should not be disturbed in the larger interest of lakhs of aspiring meritorious students of the country.

Stating that the Rules laid down for participating in JEE Advanced examination of which the brochure is part, are binding on all the participants as the candidates have entered in the process by submitting to the said Rules, the Division Bench of Justice Abhay Ahuja and Justice M.M Sathaye observed that “Petitioner not having availed the procedure of grievance redressal as provided in the Rules, has entailed the consequence of non-registration”.

Advocate S.S. Bedekar appeared for the Petitioner, whereas Advocate S.S. Patwardhan appeared for the Respondent.

In a brief background, it is the case of the Petitioner that he has qualified HSC examination in the year 2022, but he was not able to fill the examination form of JEE Advanced Examination of this year 2023 within the stipulated time frame provided by the Respondent (Joint Admission Board), due to network connectivity glitches. Contending that the Petitioner being HSC qualified in the year 2022, would be eligible to appear for JEE Advanced only up-to present year 2023, present petition had been preferred seeking direction to the sole Respondent to accept the examination form and examination fees and to permit the Petitioner to appear for and attempt JEE Advance examination 2023.

After considering the submission, the Bench accepted that IITs, NITs and other institutes, for which the Respondent conducts entrance examinations, are centres of technical studies par excellence, and hence, the process of finding the best talent is based on discipline, which is of utmost importance in the field of education.

Finding that as per the information brochure and rules governing conduct of the JEE Advanced Examination of the year 2023, the time frame provided for registration was from Apr 30, 2023 to May 07, 2023, which is about 8 full days, the Bench stated that this is sufficiently long period for all the candidates to complete registration, even assuming difficulties such as internet glitches and power outages.

"There is no explanation as to what changed between 07.05.2023 and 08.05.2023, that enabled the Petitioner to login successfully on the next day after said time frame. In addition, we must record that the login details provided by NIC also do not show any single login attempt prior to 08.05.2023. In that view of the matter, it is not possible to accept the contention of the Petitioner that he was simply unable to register for the JEE Advanced Examination of this year within said time frame”, added the Bench.

Therefore, observing that the Petitioner was not careful in applying for JEE Advanced during the time frame of 8 days, the High Court dismissed the petition.

Cause Title: Atharva Milind Desai v. Joint Admission Board, IIT [Neutral Citation: 2023: BHC-AS: 14415-DB]

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Bombay High CourtJustice Abhay AhujaJustice M.M. Sathaye

Pankaj Bajpai