HC seeks NTA’s stand on plea by JEE aspirant declared ineligible

New Delhi, Aug 13: The Delhi High Court has sought the stand of the National Testing Agency (NTA) on a petition by a candidate alleging that he has been wrongly declared "ineligible" for applying to the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) (Advance) despite securing above benchmark scores in the JEE (Main). The petitioner said that as per his score-cards, downloaded from the NTA portal, he secured a percentile of 98.79 and 99.23 in the first and second sessions, respectively, of the JEE Main examination but at the time of applying for the Advance examination, he learnt that as per the authorities, his percentile is 20.767 and 14.64, news agency PTI reported.

NTA told the High Court that the score card presented by the petitioner was false, has no credibility, and cannot be relied upon. Justice Sanjeev Narula, for now, allowed the petitioner to apply for the JEE Advanced examination, clarifying that whether he would be permitted to take the exam, which is scheduled for August 28, would be decided after perusing the relevant documents.

The High Court directed NTA to file a short affidavit in the matter and also place before it all relevant records, including the response sheet of the petitioner, and listed the case for further hearing on August 18.

"In order for the court to form an opinion, the Respondents are to be afforded an opportunity to produce the documents noted above. Accordingly, NTA is directed to file a short affidavit on the above aspects, along with all relevant records, including the response sheet of the Petitioner, within a period of five days from today," said the court in its order dated August 11.

"It is made clear that the Court has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case, even on a prima facie basis. No special equity shall be claimed by the Petitioner or enure to his benefit on the basis of above directions,". It added. The court also issued notice to the Centre on the petition and permitted it to file its response.