Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, J.

CM No.8178/2014 (for directions)

1. The writ petition filed in public interest concerns alleged discrepancies, irregularities and arbitrariness in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

2. This application was filed for interim directions, pleading:

(i) that several hundreds of seats remain vacant in IITs each year;

(ii) that the seats lying vacant have a cascading effect, as the same number of seats remain vacant in successive second, third and fourth years too;

(iii) that till the year 2004, some of such vacant seats were filled up with the wards of the employees and faculty members of IITs who were otherwise not eligible for admission;

(iv) that the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in order dated 30th April, 2011 in W.P.(C) No.17774/2010 titled N. Ravali Vs. Union of India observed that our society can ill afford to leave such large number of seats go abegging when students are willing to join them and expressed hope that remedial measures are put in place to prevent the same from the next academic year;

(v) that subsequent to the said order, the IITs introduced third round of counselling in JEE 2