IITJEE 2012-APPLICATION FEE WAIVER FOR GIRLS AND Rs 1800 FOR BOYS|

In a bid to encourage
girls to appear in the IIT's
prestigious joint entrance
examination (JEE), girl candidates
wouldn't have to pay any
application fee from next year.
The application fee for boys,
however, would be raised from
Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,800.
From 2012, applicants would
also be allowed to carry a copy of
optic response sheet on which
answers are inscribed
immediately after the
examination. Also, answers can
be circled by pen, instead of
pencil as is being done now.
These decisions were taken on
Friday by the IIT joint admission
board (JAB). Next year's JEE
would be conducted by IIT-Delhi.
IITs had initiated reforms in small
measures from last year. For
instance, answers were put out
by the JAB before the results
came out. However, it was done
35 days after the test. Also, the
scanned copies of optic response
sheet of candidates were put on
JAB website after the result. But
errors, worth 30 marks, were
also pointed out.
IITs could feel fresh heat for
carrying out more reforms after
the Supreme Court set aside a
Delhi high court order that
dismissed a PIL by Rajeev Kumar
of IIT-Kharagpur. HC had said
Kumar does not have the locus
standi to demand reforms in JEE.
However, last week apex court
judge G S Singhvi said, "The high
court was not justified in non-
suiting the appellant on the
ground of lack of locus without
even adverting to the averments
made by him that he was a
professor at IIT-Kharagpur, that
his son and daughter had
appeared in the Joint Entrance
Examinations conducted in 2006
and 2010 respectively and that
he was interested in ensuring
that the Joint Entrance
Examination is conducted in a
transparent and fair manner so
that meritorious students may
not suffer." The matter has since
gone back to the Delhi HC.
In his PIL, Kumar had demanded
that JAB should release model
answers along with solutions
immediately after the
examination. He also wanted an
investigation into the
irregularities, tampering and
fraud in the conduct of JEE and in
granting admissions in IITs.
Kumar had also prayed for
setting up of a committee of
independent experts to prescribe
a rational system for
determination of subject cut-offs
and for eliminating other
discrepancies and irregularities.
source:TOI