2025 JEE: Delhi HC upholds order dismissing plea against NTA

A division bench of the Delhi High Court has upheld a single judge’s order dismissing a writ petition of two JEE aspirants against the National Testing Agency (NTA), alleging discrepancies in the response sheets of the 2025 entrance exam.

The bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, however, modified the order that imposed costs on the two aspirants and directed them to instead perform community service for one month.

The two judges were hearing the appeal filed by the aspirants challenging a single judge’s September 22 order rejecting their claims after holding that the response sheets relied upon by them were not genuine.

The judge had considered the report submitted by the National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (NFCL) and imposed a cost of Rs 30,000 on each of the two aspirants.

In a December 22 order, the High Court division bench directed one of the appealants to render community service at an old age home for one month, from May 15 to June 15, “on all days between 11 am and 1 pm”.

The other appellant has been directed to render community service at a child care centre in Ghaziabad for the same period. The division bench noted that the previous order relied on the forensic report, which found that crucial browser logs corresponding to the time of downloading the alleged scorecards were missing from the appellants’ devices. “We find no infirmity in the reasoning or conclusions arrived at by the single judge, “the bench said. It also said the claims made by the students were “mathematically inconsistent and contrary to established examination procedures”, and the issues raised by them pertained to “disputed questions of fact and allegations of manipulation”, which could not be adjudicated by a constitutional court in its writ jurisdiction.

The bench noted the submissions of the NTA’s counsel that although the two aspirants had been barred from appearing in the JEE examinations for 2025 and 2026, there was no bar on them from appearing in any other examinations.

The court, however, clarified that the debarment would not be “treated as a stigma for their future academic pursuits.”