In a major relief for students from open schooling backgrounds, the Delhi High Court has allowed candidates whose Class 12 results were delayed to participate in the ongoing JEE Mains counselling. These students, despite clearing the national-level entrance exam, were initially excluded from the admission process due to the late declaration of their board results.
The case was brought forward by a group of students, including one who had scored an impressive 97.7 percentile in the JEE Mains 2025. They had applied through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and found themselves unable to register for counselling as their results had not been published when the process began.
During the hearing, the court acknowledged the hard work these students had put in over several years and emphasized that administrative delays should not become a barrier to their academic future. Justice Vikas Mahajan observed that disqualifying students for reasons beyond their control was unjust and needed to be corrected.
Responding to the plea, the court directed the Joint Admission Committee (JAC) to create a special registration window to allow affected candidates to participate in the counselling for admission into top Delhi government engineering institutes such as Delhi Technological University (DTU), Netaji Subhash University of Technology (NSUT), and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi).
The court also asked JAC to ensure that information about this special window is widely shared so that no eligible student misses out.
This ruling not only brings hope to hundreds of open school students but also sets a precedent for inclusive and flexible education policies in the face of procedural challenges.
