While dismissing a plea challenging the “normalisation procedure” based on percentile equivalence adopted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for JEE Main examination for entrance into Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Delhi High Court cautioned that courts need to be extremely careful even while issuing notice in such cases.
A single-judge bench of Justice C Hari Shankar, in its February 27 order, observed that the normalisation process, including the manner in which the percentile score is worked out, is “exhaustively delineated in the information bulletin” and ” completely transparent”.
It, thereafter, observed, “Courts have, in my considered opinion, to be conscious even while issuing notice in such cases, where lakhs of students are involved. The very fact that an examination such as the IIT JEE — which governs entrance to IITs, NITs, and other centrally funded technical institutions — may be subject matter of a Court proceeding, is itself a serious issue. It also creates uncertainty in the minds of students who attempt the papers. Courts have, therefore, to be extremely careful even while issuing notice in such cases. It is only if the procedure being followed is constitutionally completely unacceptable that such cases deserve issuance of notice.”
Justice Shankar then said that the “threshold to be met in such cases is very high” and the plea did not meet that, dismissing it “in limine”, while adding that the petitioner’s challenge appeared to be “somewhat nebulous” and that the petitioner, a candidate, even while undertaking the examination was well aware of the normalisation procedure.
“Needless to say, had the petitioner obtained a percentile score to his satisfaction, this writ petition would never have been filed,” said the High Court, adding that allegations in the plea are “entirely speculative”.
On the “rationale” of the percentile system, Justice Shankar said, “It is not the absolute marks of the candidate which are taken into account, but the relative marks of the candidates vis-à-vis the marks obtained by other candidates who attempt the paper of the same difficulty level. In that process, there is every possibility of a candidate who has obtained lower absolute marks in a qualifying paper qualifying for advancement, whereas a candidate who has obtained higher absolute marks in another paper — for the same examination, but of a possibly different difficulty level — does not qualify.”
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