Bombay High Court
Aariv Marwah vs Union Of India Through Its Secretary, ... on 27 June, 2025
Author: M.S.Karnik
Bench: M.S.Karnik, N.R.Borkar
2025:BHC-OS:9803-DB
Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
Digitally signed
URMILA
PRAMOD
by URMILA
PRAMOD
INGALE
ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION
Date:
INGALE 2025.07.01
19:24:53 +0530
WRIT PETITION (L) NO. 17486 OF 2025
Aariv Marwah ... Petitioner
Versus
Union of India and ors. .... Respondents
****
Mr.Mehul Shah i/b Mr.Daljeet Singh Bhatia, for the Petitioner.
Mr. Arjun Mitra (through V.C.) i/b Mr. Arsh Misra, for the
Respondents No. 2 & 3.
****
CORAM : M.S.KARNIK AND
N.R.BORKAR, JJ.
DATE : 27th JUNE, 2025
ORAL JUDGMENT (PER M.S.KARNIK, J.) :
1. Not on board. Taken on production board.
2. The petitioner by this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India prays for the following reliefs.
"a) Issue a writ of mandamus or a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other writ, order or direction, to quash and set-aside Rule 24 under Clause X of the JoSAA Business Rules 2025 as unconstitutional, discriminatory, and arbitrary;
b) Issue a writ of mandamus or a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other writ, order or direction, directing Respondent No. 2 (JoSAA) and Respondent No. 3 (JAB) to allocate seats to Petitioner, without requiring their ranks to match or exceed the OPEN Gender- Neutral closing rank;
c) Issue a writ of mandamus or a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other writ, order or direction, directing Respondent No. 2 (JoSAA) and Respondent No. 3 (JAB) to prepare and publish 1 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 ::: Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt independent list of foreign nationals for admission in IITs based on their CRL ranks and allocate seat to Petitioner."
3. The petitioner is a British national who appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2025 under Foreign Tag Category and secured a rank in the Common Rank List (CRL). The admission to undergraduate programs in IITs is through the JEE, a highly competitive two-tier exam process comprising JEE Main and JEE Advanced. On 30/09/2024 UGC addressed a letter to all the Universities to implement the guidelines for Internationalization of Higher Education in India dated 29th July 2021 and to create supernumerary seats for international students. IIT Kanpur published the JEE Advanced Information Brochure dated 21/12/2024 containing details of eligibility, exam pattern, syllabus, application process, schedule and other key information. The seats for these Defence Service (DS) candidates, Female Candidates and Foreign Nationals and OCI (F)/PIO is created on the basis of supernumerary seats. JEE Advanced exam was held on 18/05/2025.
4. Respondent No.2 - Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) issued JoSAA Business Rules 2025 (Impugned Rules) on 2 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 ::: Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt 27/05/2025. Learned counsel submitted that as per Rule 24 under Clause X of the Impugned Rules, the Foreign Tag candidate will be allotted seat in an academic program if the candidate's CRL rank is same or better than the closing rank of the said program in the open category. According to learned counsel, this imposes restrictive conditions only for Foreign Tag candidates and not for other categories such as Female Category and Defence Service category, which is discriminatory.
5. The petitioner addressed an email on 03/06/2025 to the Grievance Committee of Respondent No.3 to reconsider Rule 24 under Clause X. The last date for registration for the JoSAA Counselling was on 12/06/2025. The Petitioner completed the registration for counselling under protest and subject to the outcome of his grievance.
6. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that Rule 24 violates Article 21 of the Constitution of India by denying the petitioner access to quality education at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) which has been recognised as a fundamental right under Article 21 read with Article 14. Learned counsel 3 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 ::: Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt further submitted that JOSAA Business Rules 2025 are introduced after the examinations are held and hence it was not permissible for the respondents to have changed the Rules once the examination process has already begun and after information brochure is published, on the basis of which the petitioner appeared for the examination. It is further submitted that as a result of such a condition which was not part of the information brochure, there are several supernumerary seats which will go vacant and this by itself will deprive the otherwise meritorious foreign candidates from education which is discriminatory and irrational. It is further submitted that the condition as provided by Rule 24 of Clause X is completely discriminatory, as it treats foreign national candidates unequally compared to reserved quota categories like Defence Service and Female Category candidates with similar or lower CRL ranks.
7. Learned counsel at pains to bring to our notice various provisions of the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 to submit that examination can be conducted only in accordance with Rules framed in the statute. He contends that JoSAA virtually decides everything, so far as the admission process in IIT is concerned. 4 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 :::
Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt This amounts to giving a complete go-by to the statutory provisions. Learned counsel in order to submit that such a delegation is not permissible relied on the decision 1A.K. Roy and anr. Vs. State of Punjab and ors. in support of his submissions.
8. We have heard learned counsel for the parties. The first question for our consideration is whether the Rules are introduced after the examination was conducted and whether prescription of such a condition was justified or not.
9. We have gone through the affidavit in reply filed by respondents no. 2 and 3. It is pertinent to note clause 27 of the information brochure which reads thus :
"27. Joint Seat Allocation The seats across IITs, NITs, IIITs and other Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTIs) will be offered and allocated through a common process by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), to be held in online mode for current year.
The candidates who secured a Rank in JEE (Advanced) 2025 are eligible to participate in Joint Seat Allocation process for a seat at an IIT.
All the candidates who are eligible for admission will have to participate in the joint seat allocation process by filling in their preferential choices of the courses and Institutes. The detailed instructions for filling-in the choices and the seat allotment procedure will be made available by JoSAA 2025 through JoSAA Business Rules of 2025.
The schedule of the joint seat allocation will be announced separately by JoSAA 2025.
1 (1986) 4 Supreme Court Cases 326 5 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 ::: Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt
The list of courses that will be offered by the IIT'S for admission for the academic year 2025-26 will be made available at the time of online filling-in of choices."
10. It is thus seen from the various provisions of the JoSAA Business Rules 2025 brochure that detailed instructions for Joint Seat Allocation procedure was to be made available by JoSAA Business Rules 2025. Further it has been mentioned that schedule of Joint Seat Allocation would be in accordance with JoSAA 2025.
11. Learned counsel for the respondent has specifically referred to the frequently asked questions contained in JEE (Advanced) 2025 website which was published much prior to February 2025. The website was in public domain. Even as on February 2025, one of the participants had asked a specific question as to how are foreign supernumerary seats allotted in IITs during JoSAA. We find that the respondents had informed participants that a seat in an academic program will be allotted to a foreign candidate or an OCI/PIO (F) candidate if the candidate's CRL rank is the same or better than the closing rank of the GEN category candidate, in that academic program, and the candidate satisfies all the eligibility requirements meant for a GEN category candidate. It is further 6 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 ::: Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt specified that such seats allocated to foreign candidates will be supernumerary and is limited to up to 10% of the total number of seats of the respective IIT, program-wise. It is specifically mentioned that more details would be provided in JoSAA Business Rules 2025, as and when it is published.
12. It is material to note that the information brochure clearly provided that admission to various undergraduate programs across IITs is carried out through the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) [JEE (Advanced)]. The Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) 2025 [JEE (Advanced) 2025] and the subsequent process of admission to the IITs shall be governed by the rules contained in this document, read in conjunction with the Business Rules of the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) 2025 (to be published separately).
13. The petitioner participated in the admission process. The petitioner did not challenge the information brochure. The condition which is part of Rule 24 of the challenge was in public domain much prior to the examination and therefore at this stage, having participated in the examination, it is not open for the 7 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 ::: Ingale 504-wpl-17486-25.odt petitioner to raise the challenge to the impugned Rules. In any case, we find from the material on record that such a condition was existing much prior to the examination. It is significant to mention that in paragraph 12 of the affidavit in reply, it is clearly stated that for the foreign national candidates, the requirement for being considered for seat allocation is that they must be qualified in JEE (Advanced) and must match the rank obtained by the last admitted candidate in the Open Gender Neutral category, is not new and it has been in place for more than 10 years in substantially the same form.
14. In this view of the matter, we do not find it necessary to examine the larger challenge raised by the petitioner as to whether admission process is inconformity with the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 in this petition.
15. For all these reasons, we do not find any merit in this petition. The petition is dismissed.
(N.R.BORKAR, J.) (M.S.KARNIK, J.) 8 ::: Uploaded on - 01/07/2025 ::: Downloaded on - 05/07/2025 12:07:40 :::