HC directs IITs to seek student feedback before evaluating JEE papers

In what could have far-reaching implications for students and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Delhi High Court has directed IITs to seek objections and queries from candidates about correctness of the answer keys before evaluating JEE (Advanced) optical response sheets.

The high court passed the order dated May 28 in response to a PIL filed by an IIT-Kharagpur professor, Rajiv Kumar, about wrong/ambiguous questions, which are routinely found in every years' JEE. Kumar could not be reached for a comments.

The order directed IIT Khragapur, the organising institute for JEE (Advanced) 2014 to - invite objections from candidates/public (stakeholders) regarding correctness of the answer-keys before evaluating the Optical Response Sheets (ORS) and then consider the objections by subject experts so that corrections, if any, could be made in the answer keys before initiating the evaluation of the ORS of JEE (Advanced) 2014.

Pramod Maheshwari, CEO, Career Point, an IIT-JEE coaching institute, said, "This order is positive for students and puts a question mark on the credibility of IITs revealing the manner in which they set up question papers."

Subsequent to high court order, IIT-Kharagpur updated the JEE (Advanced) 2104 web-site and appended the schedule for submitting queries/clarification about answer keys to the chairman, JEE, IIT Kharagpur (chairjee@adm.iitkgp.ernet.in) by June 5, 2014.

The answer sheet of JEE (Advanced) 2014 is a machine-readable ORS. These sheets are graded and scrutinised with extreme care. Candidates can view the answer keys of JEE (Advanced) 2104 on Advanced 2014 website from June 1, 2014.

ORS of all candidates would have appeared both in Paper-1 and Paper-2 and will be on display on the website form June 08 to June 11, 2014 along with the machine-read responses and the marks scored.

Candidates can submit requests online to review in case of any perceived errors in the machine read responses.

Candidates will be charged at rate of Rs 500 per questions to be reviewed.