New Delhi, March 23: The Centre on Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that it has filed a reply to the court's notice issued on March 7 on a plea seeking relaxation for the students appearing for the JEE Advanced 2023.

A bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, hearing a petition filed by a group of 67 students, noted that the Centre's reply is not on record and directed it to do it. JEE Advanced Test for Admission Into 23 IITs Scheduled To Be Held on August 28.

He also gave the petitioners a week's time to file the response and directed that the reply be placed on record and listed the matter for the next hearing on April 16. On March 7, the court had issued notice to the Centre and other respondents and sought their response within two weeks.

The applicants have urged that it be made possible for them to retake the engineering entrance exam as technical issues plagued both JEE Main 2022 sessions, which were held in June and July last year. These errors prevented the candidates from giving the exam a fair shot, which led to significant decreases in many candidates' scores and percentiles.

Last year, there were a number of technological issues with the JEE exams, including frequent computer crashes, a frozen screen for many minutes, questions that took too long to load, unfinished questions, and more. JEE Main 2023 January Session Registers All-Time High Attendance of 95.8%, Say Officials.

Some students claimed that they were unable to take the exam because their centres were abruptly relocated without intimation. Some candidates encountered mistakes in their results as well as differences in their response sheet.

Students encountered similar technical issues during JEE Advanced 2022. For many of the students who experienced technical difficulties, it was their final try. It was the final JEE Main test for students who finished from Class 12 in 2020, and the final JEE Advanced attempt for students who graduated from Class 12 in 2021.

It is argued that the deadly delta Covid wave of 2021 caused the Class 12 students of that year to experience extreme mental stress, anxiety, sadness, and other compensable damages, ranging from financial hardship to family member loss. This was after the Covid outbreak in 2020 had already negatively impacted their education for more than a year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 23, 2023 04:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).