The Supreme Court (SC) on the 17th of August, rejected a plea for a demand of postponing the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) (Mains) examinations 2020.
A bench of three judges comprising of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Krishna Murari, rejected the petition filed by 11 students. The students sought the postponement of NEET (entrance exam for medical) and JEE (entrance exam for engineering) 2020.
The petition filed read, “The best recourse at this stage can be to wait for some more time, let Covid-19 Crisis subside and then only conduct these Exams, in order to save the lives of the students and their parents (sic.)”
The petitioners had claimed that NTA, which conducts entrance exams for admission in higher educational institutions in India, has decided to conduct JEE (Main) April-2020 through online mode and NEET UG-2020 exams through offline mode at 161 centres across the country.
It had alleged that NTA has indefinitely postponed the National Council of Hotel Management Joint Entrance Examination-2020, which was scheduled to be conducted on June 22, in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Petitioners from 11 different states also alleged the NTA authorities of ignoring the plight of lakhs of students from Bihar, Assam and north eastern states, which are under flood like situations.
They claimed conducting an online or offline exams in such places is a matter of question right now.
However, the benchBench of judges rejected the plea.
The benchBench of judges headed by Justice Arun Mishra said, “Career of students cannot be put in peril. We find no merit in the petition.
The petition is dismissed.” It further added, “You (lawyers) have demanded (an) opening of physical courts. But you want exams to be postponed. (The) PostponementPostponment of exams is a loss for (the) country.”
Petitioner’s lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava said the vaccine for the COVID-19 infection is soon going to be launched. The lawyer said, they are not demanding an indefinite postponementpostponment but a little delay in the schedule until the COVID-19 situations get better.
The petition also urged the SC to dismiss the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) notice.
According to the 3rd July’s notice of the NTA, the JEE and NEET entrance examinationsexamination are scheduled to be held in September.
In addition, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the Apex Court of safeguards, necessary precautions and COVID-19 guidelines while conducting these examinations.
The JEE (Mains) exams are scheduled from the 1st of September to the 6th of September. Meanwhile the NEET-UG 2020 exam is scheduled for the 13th of September.
Stay tuned for further updates.
