The Delhi High Court, on May 1, 2025, issued a notice in response to a writ petition filed by JEE (Main) 2025 aspirant Shashank Shekhar Pandey, who alleged discrepancies in his response sheet for Session 2 of the examination.
The petition was heard by Justice Vikas Mahajan, who sought replies from the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Union of India, and JEE (Advanced) authorities. Notably, the Court granted interim relief to the petitioner by allowing him to register for the JEE (Advanced) exam, despite the dispute regarding his response sheet.
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The petitioner had appeared for the JEE (Main) Session 2 exam on April 4, 2025. According to him, upon submitting the exam, a pop-up displayed that he had attempted 46 questions, leaving 29 unattempted out of the total 75 questions.
However, when the NTA published the recorded response sheet and provisional answer key on April 11, 2025, he found only 29 questions marked as attempted. The petitioner alleged that the values were inverted, and the error remained uncorrected due to the absence of a mechanism to challenge discrepancies in the response sheet—candidates were only allowed to contest the answer key until April 13, 2025.
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“In case the petitioner is not permitted to register for JEE (Advanced), he will be gravely prejudiced,” argued his counsel, Mr. Shivam Pandey.
Citing a previous 2022 interim order in a similar case (W.P.(C) No.11927/2022 - Ms. Aishani Ojha v. NTA), the petitioner requested a similar remedy.
The Court, noting the urgency since the last registration date for JEE (Advanced) was May 2, 2025, passed the following interim direction:
“Having regard to the fact that the last date for registration for JEE (Advanced) is tomorrow i.e. 02.05.2025, this Court is of the view that pending disposal of the present writ petition, JEE (Advanced) be directed to register petitioner's application and process the same.”
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Accordingly, JEE (Advanced) authorities were impleaded as a party, and counsel Mr. Arjun Mitra appeared via video conferencing and accepted the notice.
Further, the Court directed:
“The result of the petitioner may not be declared and the same may be placed before this Court in a sealed cover.”
Justice Mahajan clarified that the relief granted is purely interim and subject to the final outcome of the writ petition:
“The interim directions shall be subject to outcome of the present writ petition and the same will not create any special equities in favour of the petitioner.”
The case is now scheduled to be heard again on May 19, 2025, and the NTA has been directed to file its counter-affidavit and submit logs related to the petitioner's Session 2 response.
This case highlights the legal recourse available to students facing technical or procedural irregularities in high-stakes national entrance exams and brings attention to the need for transparent and challengeable systems in online assessments.
Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. Shivam Pandey, Mr. Priyanshu Upadhyay, Ms. Shruti and Mr. Abhinav Sharma, Advs
Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Neeraj, Mr. Soumyadip Chakraborty and Mr. Vedansh Anand, Advs. for R-1/UOI; Mr. Sanjay Khanna, Standing Counsel with Ms. Pragya Bhushan, Mr. Tarandeep Singh and Ms. Vilakshana Dayma, Advs. for R- 2/NTA; Mr. Arjun Mitra, Adv. for R-3/JEE Advance, IIT Kanpur
Title: SHASHANK SHEKHAR PANDEY v. UNION OF INDIA & ANR.
