Vikrant Shekhawat : Jan 10, 2025, 02:22 PM
JEE Advanced 2025: The Supreme Court on January 10 gave an important verdict regarding the eligibility of JEE Advanced 2025. The court ruled in favor of the students who had changed their preparation and admission plans based on the initial notification of the Joint Entrance Board (JAB). The court ordered that students who left college between November 5 and November 18, 2024 would be allowed to take JEE Advanced three times. This petition was filed on behalf of 22 students.Controversy over change in eligibilityThe Joint Entrance Board had issued a notification on November 5, 2023, announcing that students passing class 12th examination in 2023, 2024 and 2025 would be eligible to take the JEE Advanced exam. However, 13 days later the board changed the eligibility criteria and limited it to only the students of 2024 and 2025 batch. Due to this change, many students felt cheated and filed a petition in the Supreme Court against it.Students claim: Loss due to change in eligibilityThe petitioners claimed that they had passed the Class 12th examination in 2023 and also got admission in engineering colleges. But when the number of attempts to appear in JEE Advanced was increased from two to three, they started preparing for JEE Advanced 2025.Students spent money on JEE Main 2025 application form fee, coaching class fees, test series, study material and other preparatory courses for their preparation. In such a situation, the sudden change in eligibility rules harmed their plans.Supreme Court verdict: Relief to studentsA bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih said during the hearing that students who had left college thinking that they could appear for JEE Advanced exam three times cannot now be deprived of this opportunity.The bench said that this change would be unfair to the students who had taken important career decisions relying on the notification of the Joint Entrance Board. The court directed the Joint Entrance Board to allow students who left the course between November 5 and November 18, 2024 to register for JEE Advanced 2025.Arguments presented on behalf of the petitionersPetitioners' lawyer Sanjit Kumar Trivedi told the court that the changes made in the eligibility rules are playing with the future of the students.The lawyer said that the students have not only invested financially in the preparation of JEE Advanced, but they have also changed the direction of their career. In such a situation, changing the eligibility rules back will cause great harm to those students who have devoted their time and resources to this exam.Effect of court orderThis decision of the Supreme Court will affect all those students who have passed their class 12th examination in 2023 and have left their colleges by November 2024.This decision also ensures that in future the Joint Entrance Board keeps in mind the interests of the students before issuing any notification. This decision of the court has given a big relief to the students and provided them another chance to try their luck in JEE Advanced 2025.