Hearing the petition filed by two students over awarding the bonus marks for the wrong question printed in the Hindi language the bench of Justices Dipak Misra and AM Khanwilkar stayed the counselling and admission procedures in all IITs, NITs and GFTIs till further notice.

Latest Update: Supreme Court Removes Stay On JEE Advance 2017 Counseling

Why was the petition filed?

The petition, filed by IIT aspirant Aishwarya Agarwal and other candidates, had questioned the procedure of awarding “bonus marks” to the candidates who had appeared in the JEE (Advanced) 2017 examination. They alleged it to be wrong and violation of their rights.

They mentioned that bonus marks were awarded to all the candidates irrespective whether they attempted it or not which affected the rank list. Thus the petition demanded the court's direction to review the rank list and asked requested the apex court to direct the MHRD to release two rank list with and without awarding bonus marks so that the situation could be more clear whether awarding bonus marks ahs affected the rank list or not.

As an alternative, the petitioner said the institution should conduct fresh examination and prepare a fresh merit list or grant all students another opportunity to appear in the examination to be conducted next year.

The decision has affected many aspirants who are willing to seek admission in the prestigious institutes of IITs and NITs.

Around 1.7 lakh students had registered for the JEE-Advanced examination in 2017 and 1.6 lakh appeared for the test. Out of the total, 50,455 students were declared to have qualified and are vying for 11,032 seats across 23 IITs.

On June 30, the apex court had issued notice to the Ministry of Human Resource Development on a plea seeking quashing of the JEE 2017 rank list.

The matter will now be heard on July 10.

Must Read: Supreme Court Removes Stay On JEE Advance 2017 Counseling

Story to be updated. (With inputs from PTI )