Supreme Court Refuses To Postpone GATE 2022 Examinations

New Delhi: Citing that delaying the exams might lead to ''chaos and uncertainty'' among students, the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday refused to postpone Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2022 exams.

After getting the green signal from the country's apex court, the GATE 2022 exams will now be held physically as per schedule on February 5,6,12, and 13.

Around 11 GATE candidates had appealed to the SC urging it to issue directions to the central government and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur (the organisers of GATE 2022) for postponement of the exams in the wake of COVID-19 surge.

"With the current third wave, Covid-19 due to its new variant Omicron has spread severely in several states, cities. Several studies including one done by IIT Kanpur predict that the peak of the 3rd wave is expected in early February and the wave will end by April. Therefore, the peak is most likely to coincide with the usual exam dates of GATE," the petition read.

"If the exam dates are not postponed, the candidates appearing for GATE 2022 run an imminent risk of getting infected and spreading it thereby getting threat to their life as well as their family member's lives," it added.

To this while hearing the petition, a bench of the Supreme Court, led by Justice DY Chandrachud informed the petitioners that the exams are a policy matter on the part of the government and any interference by the court at this stage would only lead to ''chaos and uncertainty'' among students.

The court further said that the first and the second COVID-19 waves were different from the third in recent times, as many as 20 exams conducted by government bodies had to be postponed in a similar manner.

The court further pointed out that only 20,000 candidates had signed the online petition seeking postponement of the exam, while lakhs of students across the country have been preparing for the exams.

Thus, to avoid chaos and uncertainty among the rest of the students, the apex court said it has decided to dismiss the plea seeking postponement of the GATE 2022 exams.

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