Supreme Court lifts stay on IIT, NIT admissions
The Supreme Court lifted on Monday the stay on admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), NITs and other colleges, bringing relief to thousands of students who took the joint entrance examination.
The court had on Friday put on hold admissions to IITs, National Institutes of Technology and other colleges over the awarding of bonus marks in JEE, an all-India examination taken by aspiring engineers.
Dismissing petitions challenging the award of grace marks, a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra also directed the institutes to give an undertaking that such an error would not be repeated.
“IITs will have to give an undertaking and develop a mechanism that such mistakes will not recur and ensure that no such situation arises in which bonus marks will have to be awarded to all the students,” the bench said, adjourning the case for a hearing in October.
Bonus marks were awarded to all students who wrote the exam
Students of engineering and technical institutes will now have to pursue either yoga or take part in a sport to bag a degree.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has made it mandatory for students to either opt for yoga, sports,
for admission to engineering colleges after printing errors were found in the question paper. In a petition, two students had sought a direction to IIT-Madras to revise the list of successful students without giving them bonus marks.
A 2005 Supreme Court verdict was cited when the bench had stayed the counselling that was underway then. However, on Monday the court said the ruling National Social Service (NSS), National Cadet Corps (NCC) or participate in the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan campaign from this academic year. While the attendance for these activities will be mandatory, there will be no marks. Sources said students will have to get at least 25% attendance in these activities to be eligible for a degree. ››P8
did not apply in the IIT case because only 10,000 students were involved in that case.
“In the present case there are 1.56 lakh students who have taken the examination,” the bench said. “On a careful study of that verdict we found there was no negative marking, while here there was negative marking for wrong questions attempted by the students.”
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Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said Monday he met Chinese envoy Luo Zhaohui as he took to Twitter to clear the confusion created by party colleagues over the interaction.
“It is my job to be informed on critical issues. I met the Chinese Ambassador, Ex-NSA, Congress leaders from NE & the Bhutanese Ambassador,” he tweeted.
The confusion caused embarrassment to the party as its chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala denied any such meeting but later accepted that Gandhi met Luo on Saturday.
Surjewala was responding to a television news report that said the two discussed bilateral ties in the context of the military standoff between the two Asian giants near the Sikkim border. Gandhi tweeted: “If Govt is so concerned abt me meeting an Amb, they shld explain why 3Ministers are availing Chinese hospitality while the border issue is on.”
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