Twenty-two students from 12 states have filed a case against the Joint Admission Board (JAB) over the sudden change in the number of attempts allowed for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced. The JAB initially increased the limit from two to three attempts on November 5, 2024, only to reverse the decision back to two on November 18, 2024, within a span of less than two weeks.
The petitioners contend that this abrupt policy shift has caused significant hardship. According to their writ petition, the students, who had passed their Class 12 exams in 2023 and were already enrolled in engineering colleges, began preparing for JEE Advanced 2025 as soon as the permissible attempts were increased. Their preparation involved substantial financial and personal commitments, including paying JEE Main 2025 application fees, enrolling in coaching classes, purchasing study materials, and participating in test series.
Some students even left their engineering colleges or relocated to their hometowns or coaching hubs like Kota to dedicate themselves fully to the preparation. The reversal of the decision to allow only two attempts has, they claim, disrupted the plans of thousands of students across the country.
“The abrupt and unexplained reversal of JAB’s policy within 13 days reflects a lack of due process and rationality, amounting to arbitrariness,” the petitioners argue in their filing.