Supreme Court dismisses pleas seeking postponement of NEET and JEE Mains 2020

Guwahati: The Supreme Court on Monday (August 17) dismissed pleas seeking postponement of JEE Main 2020 and NEET UG examinations that are scheduled to be conducted in September amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Dismissing the petition, the SC Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said that postposing the NEET/JEE will put the 'career of students in peril'. The bench also stressed that exams will be held with adequate precautions.

Advocate Alakh, who filed the plea, said that there is a chance of vaccine coming soon for COVID-19 as the Prime Minister spoke about it in his August 15 speech. He said that the petitioners are not seeking an indefinite postponement of the exam, but a postponement for some time.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for NTA, said that exams should be conducted, and adequate precautions will be taken.

Justice Arun Mishra said that unless exams are conducted, students will end up losing an academic year. He further added, "Life should move on even in COVID-19 times. Can we just stop exams? We should move on."

Starting the hearing in the case, Justice Arun Mishra said there are two petitions- one seeking conduct of JEE and NEET exams and another seeking postponement of these exams.

The plea, filed on August 6, by 11 students belonging to 11 states, had sought the quashing of the public notices released by the National Testing Agency on July 3, in which it was decided to hold the JEE Main and NEET UG exams in September. The petitioners also urged the court to direct the Centre to hold JEE and NEET examinations only after normalcy is restored in the country.

The plea had cited that, conducting the JEE Main and NEET examination across the country at such unsafe time will be putting the lives of lakhs of young students (including petitioners herein) at utmost risk and danger of disease and death.

It also said that the best option at this stage can be to wait for some more time and let the COVID-19 crisis subside and then only conduct these exams, to save the lives of the students and their parents.

The petitioners also urged the Court to increase the number of NEET and JEE examination centres across the country and provide at least one centre in one district of each state.

The plea had also said, "While deciding to conduct the aforesaid JEE (Main) April-2020 and NEET UG-2020 exams in September 2020, the respondents (NTA and others) have overlooked that many states have refused to allow conducting of any professional or non-professional exams in their states at this stage and hence the same is likely to cause unimaginable harassment to the petitioners and other similarly situated students."

It is to be noted that the NTA issued a notice on July 3 which had said the JEE Main will be conducted from September 1 to 6 and NEET UG 2020 will be held on September 13, 2020.