The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to interfere in an appeal against the IIT ‘normalisation procedure’ which gives 40 per cent weightage to Class XII board exams for admission in the National Institute of Technology (NIT).
A division bench of acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru told the petitioners, “There is no fault in the normalisation procedure and we don’t want to interfere with interim relief at this stage.”
Counsel of the petitioner said, “The appeal stands withdrawn and it will be now heard by the single judge. A suitable date for the matter will be notified on Monday.” After the single judge order dismissed the application on July 3 demanding an interim order on the registration of students till the final adjudication of the petition, the petitioner and IIT aspirant Arnav Ohri, appealed in the division bench on July 9, on which the bench had issued notices to the respondents- HRD Ministry, CBSE, JEE Apex Board and JEE Interface.
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 had moved an application seeking reservation of a seat for Ohri and a 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.”
The normalisation procedure, introduced by former 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 maintains 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.”