CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIKAS MAHAJAN

O R D E R

30.05.2025

1. The petitioners in the present petitions are the students who have successfully cleared JEE (Mains)-2025 conducted by respondent/National Testing Agency (NTA) and have secured the following category wise All-India Ranks and percentiles:

2. The case set out by the petitioners in their respective petitions is that they got registered with the National Institute of Open Schooling (‘NIOS’) and appeared for the Senior Secondary School Examination (Class-XII) Examination which commenced from 22.04.2025 and ended on 07.05.2025.

3. The result of petitioners’ Class-XII Examination is awaited. The petitioners having secured qualifying percentile in the JEE (Mains) are now entitled to participate in the counselling which is to be conducted by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (‘JoSAA’) as well as Joint Admission Council (‘JAC’).

4. JOSAA has been set up by the Ministry of Education to manage and regulate joint seat allocation for admission to 127 institutes for the academic year 2025-2026, which includes 23 IITs; 31 NITs; ITEST, Shibpur; 26 IIITs and 46 other Government Funded Technical Institutes. The admission to all the academic programmes for all these institutes will be made through a single platform.

5. JAC will conduct counselling for admission to undergraduate programmes in Delhi Government funded premium universities offering engineering and architecture programmes, started in the year 2014 as an initiative of Government of NCT of Delhi. For the academic years 2025-2026, Delhi Technological University (DTU); Netaji Subhash University of Technology (NSUT); Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW); and Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DESU) are participating in JAC for their B.Tech and B.Arch programmes.

6. The common grievance articulated by the petitioners in their respective petitions is that since their result for Senior Secondary School Examination undertaken by the them in the month of April-May, 2025 has not yet been declared by NIOS, they are not being allowed to participate in the counselling process by JAC. However, no such embargo as been imposed by JoSAA.

7. Learned counsels appearing on behalf of petitioners submit that despite petitioners qualifying JEE (Mains)-2025, they are being severely prejudiced solely due to delay in the declaration of Class-XII results by NIOS which serves as an eligibility criterion for candidates to register/participate in the counselling process of JAC.

8. The relevant clauses 2.2 and 2.3 of JAC counselling broacher reads as under:

2.2 Qualifying Examination

The qualifying examination for admission to all the programmes offered by the participating Universities / Institute will be any one of the following:

(i) Senior School Certificate Examination (12-year 10+2 course) of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi.

(ii) Indian School Certificate Examination (12-year 10+2 course) of the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi.

(iii) Any other examination recognized as equivalent to the Senior School Certificate Examination of the CBSE.

Note: Candidates who have appeared at the annual examination in the year 2025 and have been placed in compartment (supplementary) will not be eligible for admission for the year 2025.

2.3 Criteria of Minimum Marks in Qualifying Examination

2.3.1 B. Tech. Programmes offered by NSUT, DTU, IGDTUW and Dual Degree B.Tech. (MAE) + MBA at IGDTUW

A candidate securing 60% or more marks in an aggregate of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, and has passed English (Core or Elective) as a subject of study at the Senior School Certificate examination l