Aspirants Dropped Out Between Nov 5-18 Are Eligible For 3 Attempts: Supreme Court On JEE Advanced
The Supreme Court has allowed students who withdrew from colleges between November 5 and November 18, 2024, to appear for the JEE -Advanced exam 3 times, adhering to the Joint Admission Board’s (JAB) earlier notification. This directive comes after the JAB decision to overturn its earlier decision of reducing attempts to 2 from 3.
The plea was heard by a bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Augustine George Masih. Senior Advocate K. Parameshwar, appeared for the petitioners, arguing that the JAB’s decision to revise the eligibility criteria mid-cycle was arbitrary and left many students at a disadvantage.
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Justice Gavai, noting the unique circumstances of this year’s notification. The court acknowledged that while limiting attempts may be a sound policy in principle, however, the abrupt reversal within 13 days caused undue harm to students who acted on the earlier notification. “If students have acted on their understanding, the withdrawal cannot be allowed to work to their detriment”.
The court, passed an interim order and clarified that students who had withdrawn from collegees between November 5 and November 18, 2024, in reliance on the intial notification, would be permitted to register and appear for JEE-Advanced as per the earlier eligibility criteria allowing three attempts.
Notably, the Joint Admission Board (JAB) has restored the eligibility criteria related to the number of attempts in JEE Advanced 2025. Earlier in a notification released on November 5, 2024, the admission board announced that candidates can appear for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) thrice, however later taking a U-turn board has said that the attempts criteria has been restored to the original. Now a candidate can attempt JEE Advanced a maximum of two times in two consecutive years.
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