Claim
Several social media posts are being shared falsely claiming that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not clear the competitive Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for his admission into the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), and was admitted through corporate quota. The posts are based on a response by IIT Kharagpur to an RTI enquiry dated April 18, 2016, which stated that Kejriwal's all India rank (AIR) was not available. The caption when translated reads, "RTI information on Lavanasur's IIT studies shows that he took admission in IIT through quota instead of JEE exam. It is said that Lavnasur was one of the two boys who were given admission in IIT by Jindal Group in exchange of donation. Lavnasur has not made his JEE exam result and ranking public till date."
Fact
BOOM found that the viral claim is false; Rajender Singh, former dean of undergraduate studies and admissions at the institute, had told Times of India in May 2016 that IIT JEE data is destroyed after three years, leading to the institute's inability to provide the ranking at first. He also mentioned that corporate quota reservation for admission did not exist back then. The viral posts are sharing the first RTI reply to make the false claim. Following the controversy after the initial RTI enquiry, IIT Kharagpur responded to yet another RTI enquiry, as reported by Deccan Herald in July 2016, where they clarified that Kejriwal's JEE ranking - which was earlier untraceable - was found to be 563 "after in-depth search from admission register". BOOM had previously debunked the same claim back in April 2023 when the same RTI photo was being shared.