The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response from the Central Government and CBSE regarding the “normalisation procedure” for IIT-JEE (Mains) giving 40 per cent weightage to Class XII Board exams. The court issued the notice on an appeal challenging the single judge order that dismissed the plea earlier.
Contending that despite having scored excellent marks in IIT JEE entrance exam the policy denied admission to petitioner and IIT aspirant Arnav Ohri, the petitioner moved an application seeking a stay on “the online registration of students till the final adjudication of the petition” and direction to the JEE Apex Board and JEE Interface Group to “prepare a rank list based only on the JEE marks this year.”
This application, against the “normalisation” policy, was dismissed by Justice VK Jain on July 3, saying that “the petitioner participated in the examination procedure knowing very well that 40 per cent weightage will be given to Class XII examination. Hence it may not be open to the petitioner to question the said policy.”
Challenging the single judge order, the petitioner, through advocate Aritra Das, appealed to the division bench of Acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru who have issued notices to the Human Resource Development Ministry, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), IIT Apex Board and JEE Interface and posted the matter to July 12.
The normalisation procedure, introduced by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, gives 40 per cent weightage to Class XII Board marks while deciding the All India Rank for admissions in top engineering colleges, including the National Institute of Technologies (NIT). The result for the IIT JEE (Mains) was announced and the counseling is scheduled to end on July 15.
The petition urges that the Government, while adopting the procedure, “has ignored the vital fact that students appear from several boards in India like the CBSE, ICSE, and State Boards like Bihar Board, UP Board and others, which have different curriculums, system of examinations and marking schemes. Therefore, giving 40 per cent weightage to the XII Board exams is arbitrary and unconstitutional.”
Counsel for the petitioner urged that while formulating such a policy the HRD Ministry ignored the fact that it’s not just the CBSE but there are other boards functioning across the country.