The Delhi High Court upheld a single judge’s decision rejecting two JEE aspirants’ plea against the NTA over alleged discrepancies in response sheets. The court replaced the monetary penalty with one month of community service and said the debarment would not harm their future academic prospects.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has upheld a single judge’s decision dismissing the writ petition filed by two JEE aspirants against the National Testing Agency (NTA), who had alleged discrepancies in their response sheets of the 2025 Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela agreed with the findings of the single judge and refused to interfere with the conclusions reached earlier. However, the bench modified the earlier order imposing monetary costs on the students and instead directed them to perform community service for a limited period.
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The judges were hearing an appeal filed by the two aspirants challenging the September 22 order of the single judge, which had rejected their claims after holding that the response sheets relied upon by them were not genuine.
The single judge had examined the report submitted by the National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (NFCL) and had imposed a cost of Rs 30,000 on each of the two aspirants.
In its order dated December 22, the division bench directed one of the appellants to render community service at an old age home for one month, from May 15 to June 15,
“on all days between 11 am and 1 pm”.
The other appellant was directed to perform community service at a child care centre in Ghaziabad for the same duration.
While upholding the dismissal of the writ petition, the bench observed that the earlier decision was based on a detailed forensic examination. It noted that the forensic report found that crucial browser logs corresponding to the time of downloading the alleged scorecards were missing from the appellants’ devices.
Explaining its agreement with the earlier findings, the bench stated,
“We find no infirmity in the reasoning or conclusions arrived at by the single judge,”
clearly endorsing the view that the claims made by the aspirants could not be accepted.
The court further held that the assertions raised by the students were
“mathematically inconsistent and contrary to established examination procedures”,
and that the issues highlighted by them involved
“disputed questions of fact and allegations of manipulation”.
The bench clarified that such issues could not be examined or decided by a constitutional court while exercising its writ jurisdiction.
During the hearing, the bench also took note of the submissions made on behalf of the NTA. The counsel informed the court that although the two aspirants had been barred from appearing in the JEE examinations for 2025 and 2026, there was no restriction on them from appearing in any other examinations.
Providing an important clarification, the court observed that the debarment imposed on the aspirants would not be
“treated as a stigma for their future academic pursuits.”
With these observations, the Delhi High Court dismissed the appeal, upheld the findings of the single judge, and replaced the financial penalty with a direction for community service, bringing the long-running dispute between the aspirants and the NTA to a close.
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