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SC clears way, IIT results today
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, May 25
The Supreme Court today facilitated declaration of IIT-JEE 2010 results tomorrow by rejecting a plea for a stay. A PIL had sought to restrain the Centre from announcing the results, citing some alleged discrepancies in the Hindi version of the question paper for the joint entrance examination (JEE).

A vacation Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and CK Prasad dismissed the PIL with a stern warning to the petitioner who “claims” to be a journalist and Secretary of a non-governmental organisation.

The Bench was “convinced” that the petitioner had no locus nor was there any justification for allowing him to “inter-meddle” in the declaration of results. It was extremely difficult to “imagine the magnitude of the adverse consequences” of any stay on the results, which were closely linked to the careers of more than four lakh students who had taken the entrance test, the court clarified.

“Ordinarily, we would have saddled the petitioner with exemplary costs of more than five figures, but keeping in view the fact that he is a young man and seems to have been misguided….we refrain from imposing costs,” the judges said in the order.

The court also laid down guidelines for the judiciary in the matter of entertaining such PILs. “Every court has to bear in mind” the balance of convenience, irreparable injury a stay might cause and above all the element of public interest involved in such petitions, the apex court ruled, pointing out that all these three factors were against grant of stay in the present case.