News Date :
Mumbai : The Bombay High Court Thursday asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to file its response to the applications challenging the policy of considering the top 20 percentile as a qualifying factor for admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) [Anubha Sahai v. National Testing Agency & Ors.]
The Court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking relaxation of the 75% score in higher secondary examination which is the eligibility criterion for admission to the IIT.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne was informed about the percentile calculating system and the judges found discrepancies in the system.
“There are 30 boards in the country. Not everyone releases the percentile list. In the 2019 list, for open category, the cut off was 418 in Maharashtra, it was 365 in Goa. The Goa candidate will be benefitting over a Maharashtra candidate,” the Court said.
The Court also asked why the qualification criterion of securing 75% marks in board exam was prescribed despite there being a qualifying examination.
Advocate Rui Rodrigues, appearing for NTA, informed the Court that the criteria was not added recently.
“Earlier it was 50%, why is it 75% now? Please take instructions on when this new cut off was imposed. File your affidavit. We will place this after a week”, the Court said.
The PIL highlighted that until last year the eligibility criteria of 75% was not applicable.
With this sudden change in eligibility, lakhs of students may be affected, it was submitted.
“The eligibility of 75% in Higher Secondary Class Board Examinations will hit lakhs of students who can score very high in the Mains examination but may not have 75% minimum marks in their board examinations,” the PIL said.
The Court had, in January, rejected plea for stay on the Mains exam.
