New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday dismissed a plea seeking the postponement of JEE (Main) April 2020 and NEET-Undergraduate examinations. The exams are scheduled to be held in September, amid the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases. SC dismissed the plea saying that the precious year of students “cannot be wasted” and life has to go on.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra dismissed the plea. The bench of judges said that the career of students “cannot be put under jeopardy for long”.
“Life has to go on. Life has to move ahead. Precious year of students cannot be wasted,” the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, said during the hearing conducted through video conferencing while paving the way for the commencement of the exams as scheduled.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the apex court that due precautions and all safeguards would be taken while conducting these examinations.
The counsel appearing for the petitioners told the bench that lakhs of students are looking towards the top court for relief and they were only seeking postponement of these exams.
The plea, filed by 11 students belonging to 11 states, had sought the quashing of the July 3 notices issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA). As per the notice, it was decided to conduct the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) April 2020 and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-Undergraduate exams in September.
JEE (Main) April 2020 is scheduled from September 1-6, while NEET-UG 2020 exam is scheduled for September 13.
The plea, filed through advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, sought for the exams to be conducted only after normalcy is restored.
The plea had also sought a direction to the authorities to increase the number of examination centres.
It 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.
The plea had also alleged that authorities concerned have ignored the plight of lakhs of students from Bihar, Assam and northeastern states, which are presently reeling under flood, and conducting either online or offline exams in such places may not be possible.