80 percent marks not a must for IIT entrance exam: Sibal

New Delhi, Oct 20 : Scoring high in the Class 12 examination would not be a prerequisite for taking the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) entrance exam, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal Tuesday said, appearing to backtrack from his stand a day earlier.

"The eligibility criteria to appear in the joint entrance exam (IIT-JEE) is decided by the IITs themselves. The government has no role to play and any report which suggests that there is a proposal to allow only those who obtain above 80 percent marks in their Class 12 examination to sit for the JEE is baseless," Sibal told reporters.

Sibal said this retracting his stand Monday, when he had stressed that the IIT admission procedures "should give more weightage to Class 12 exam marks," as well as consider raising the existing eligibility from 60 percent to 80 to 85 percent for students to appear in the IIT Joint Entrance Examination.

The minister made the comments while chairing a meeting of the IIT Council here.

Sibal Tuesday clarified that the only decision that had been taken by the IIT Council was that IITs would submit a report in January next year to "rationalise JEE".

"It is entirely their decision to decide on the criteria. It is they who will consider what weightage is to be given to the Class 12 examination," Sibal added.

The minister also mentioned that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sent him a letter questioning the entire issue and that the HRD ministry had conceded that the ministry had no role to play in IIT entrance examination.

"The HRD ministry can in no way, either directly or indirectly, decide or make any proposal for a decision," Sibal concluded.

At the IIT Council meeting, the minister said he also wanted to get rid of professional coaching for medical and engineering exams.