Madras HC directive to IIT-Kanpur on selection of candidates

The Madras High Court has directed IIT Kanpur to select those candidates who followed original instructions given by the institute during a JEE Advanced exam held in May last and not based on the clarification issued after the test.

Justice S Vaidyanathan gave the direction on July 2 on a petition from L Lakshmi Sree, represented by her father, seeking a direction to quash the clarification issued by the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur against its original instructions given during the May 20 exam.

Allowing the plea, the judge said candidates who assigned numerical values as answers, as per the original instructions, will have to be given preference over those who, according to IIT, also gave correct answers by rounding off the numerical values to one decimal place or without any decimal notation.

"By giving such a preference, the total numbers of candidates who have been selected are not going to be affected. Instead, their ranking alone will be changed," he said.

The petitioner submitted that she had qualified in JEE Main exam and appeared for JEE Advanced exam on May 20 last here.

During the exam, candidates were instructed to answer in correct numerical value in decimal notation rounded off to the second decimal place.

It was made clear that full marks would be granted only if answers were given as per instructions.

The petitioner also submitted that most candidates including herself read the instructions carefully and entered the correct numerical value in decimal notation, rounding off to the second decimal place.

However, some candidates gave answers which were not up to the second decimal, which the petitioner said was against the instructions given during the examination.

Subsequently, the authorities clarified on their website that "if an answer is the integer 11, all the answers entered as 11, 11.0, or 11.00 will be correct".

The petitioner claimed that if marks were awarded to candidates who did not follow the instructions, it would affect the ranks of candidates like her.

Hence, the petitioner sought a direction to quash the subsequent clarification order issued after the examination by IIT-Kanpur.