.jpeg)
When the JEE-Mains exam results were declared last month, Om Upadhyay, a student of the National Institute of Open Learning (NIOS), found out he scored a whopping 97.7 percentile.
But he was far from happy. The reason?
The Mains result was declared on April 18, way before his Class XII results which will only be released by the end of June. And the last date of the JEE Mains counselling process — a prerequisite for getting admission in Delhi Technological University (DTU), Netaji Subhash University of Technology (NSUT), and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi) — would end on June 19.
“With these marks, I could have gotten into DTU... It was my dream,” he had told The Indian Express last week.
Aggrieved by this, Om (an EWS student), along with two other students (one who scored 91.66 percentile and an SC student who scored 72.54 percentile), moved the Delhi High Court on May 28 through advocates Ankit Singh Sinsinwar, Ravi Kumar and Dhananjay.
Two days later, on May 30, they were granted relief by Justice Vikas Mahajan.
“... no direction can be given to the JAC (Joint Admission Committee) to reschedule or defer the counselling dates. However, an important aspect which cannot be overlooked is that students put hard labour for two to four years, or maybe more, while preparing for JEE (Mains)... and they should not get ousted from consideration [during] counselling despite having attained good percentile and rank only on the ground that result of Class XII was not been declared timely by the education Board concerned conducting such qualifying exam...,” Justice Mahajan ruled.
The three open school students had moved court against JAC, a consortium of institutions, for admission to undergraduate programmes in Delhi government-funded premier universities offering engineering and architecture programmes. The admissions are done based on the rank of students in the JEE Mains exam.
The Class XII marksheet is relevant only to the extent that it assesses the minimum qualifying marks, which are 60% or more for BTech courses offered by NSUT and DTU and 70% for the same courses at IIIT-Delhi.
While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) have declared results of the Class XII examination, open school students have been left in the lurch. The open school examinations concluded on May 19, while the JEE Mains result was out a month earlier, on April 18.
The plea stated, “In the past, JAC released its schedule for counselling in a manner so that the last date [to apply] is post the declaration of Class XII result by NIOS. This was done to accommodate students of Class XII, who appeared through open school...”
“However, to the shock and surprise of petitioners, commencement of online registration and choice filling was to be done from 21.05.2025 (May 21) and the last date and time for online registration and choice filling was 02.06.2025 (June 2), till 10.30 pm,” stated the plea.
Passing a list of directions, Justice Mahajan noted: “It is true that students have no control over the declaration of result by the Board conducting Class XII examination nor they are in any way responsible for the delay in declaration of result, but at the same time it cannot be overlooked that operational difficulties might occur if, at this belated stage, few students are allowed to participate in the counselling without having Class XII result.”
First, it directed NIOS to declare the Class XII results before June 17, giving the students three days before the last day of counselling concludes.
“In case Class XII result is not declared by NIOS before the opening of single-day window on 19.06.2025, the Respondent/JAC shall permit the petitioners to register themselves on a single-day window available on 19.06.2025, without insisting upon the Class XII result, either physically or making necessary changes on their online portal, with a condition that seat allotment will be made by JAC to the petitioners only if they can furnish the result of Class XII before the declaration of seat allotment result of second round,” read the second direction.
The HC also directed JAC to notify other candidates similarly placed as the three students about the court order and allow them to register for counselling on a single-day window, which will be made available on June 19.
“In the present petitions as well, some of the petitioners have scored a good percentile and ranks. Some of them are even from the marginalised sections of society. They will be deprived of participation in counselling and consequent admission to the course and institute of their choice for reasons beyond their control...,” the court ruled.
