IIT-JEE entrance module: SC says no arbitrariness

The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with the ranking and selection process adopted for the prestigious IIT-JEE entrance exams saying there was no arbitrariness or ulterior motives in fixing the methodology.

A bench of justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik said courts would interfere with the procedure only if there was proven malafide, caprice or arbitrariness, which it said was lacking in the present system adopted by the the Joint Admission Board, the nodal agency for conducting the exams across the country.

"The fact that the procedure was complicated would not make it arbitrary or unreasonable or discriminatory. "There are several statistical methods of preparing the ranking for the purpose of selecting the best candidates for admission to a course, some simple and some complex. Each method or system has its merits and demerits,” Justice Raveendran, writing the judgement, said and can be adopted only under certain conditions or by making certain assumptions. "Any such statistical technique should be under continuous review and evaluation to achieve improvement in the light of experience gained over the years and new developments, if it is a reliable tool in the selection process," Justice Raveendran, writing the judgement, said. The apex court passed the judgement while dismissing the appeal filed by an aspirant Sanchit Bansal, son of an IIT Professor in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, who had appeared in IIT-JEE 2006 as a general category candidate.