Mumbai: The Bombay High Court refused to grant relief to an 18-year-old boy who failed to submit his online form for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Advanced due to a technical glitch observing that institutes like IITs and NITs are centres of technical studies par excellence and the process of finding the best talent in this country is based on discipline.
A vacation bench of Justices Abhay Ahuja and Milind Sathaye, on May 24, dismissed the petition filed by the student, Atharva Desai observing: "It is not in doubt that IITs, NITs and other institutes are centres of technical studies par excellence in India. The process of finding the best talent in this country is based on discipline which is of utmost importance in the field of education."
Desai had approached the High Court claiming that he lived in a rural area where there were frequent power outages because of which he was unable to register himself online in the given time frame. He prayed that the authorities be directed to accept his registration form and permit him to appear for the JEE-Advanced, which is scheduled to be held on June 4.
However, the Joint Admission Board of the IIT opposed the plea stating that, as per their records, Desai had logged in on the portal for the first time to fill the online form a day after the deadline.
Accepting the contention, the HC said it could not disturb the discipline adopted by the institution in the larger interest of lakhs of aspiring meritorious students of the country. According to the brochure issued by the IIT, candidates could register for the JEE-Advanced from April 30 to May 7.
The bench said, "This is a sufficiently long period for all candidates to complete registration, even assuming difficulties such as internet glitches and power outages. The candidates who are placed in a less advantageous situation, such as the petitioner, have sufficient time to reach places having better connectivity and power supply."
The court also noted that as per Desai's login details, he had logged in to the portal for the first time on May 8 and had managed to successfully log in as many as nine times on the portal.
"We fail to understand why the petitioner was not able to log in on the portal the previous eight days when the window for registration was open. There is no explanation from the petitioner on this," the bench said.
"It is not possible to accept Desai's contention that he was unable to register for the exam within the time frame due to internet glitch or power outage," it added. Also, Desai had not once attempted to contact the IIT's admission board seeking redressal of his grievance. The rules laid down for participating in JEE-Advanced were binding on all candidates and dismissed the petition, it said.
