Students From 11 States Move Supreme Court To Defer NEET And JEE(Mains) Exams Due To Rising Covid 19 Cases

After a petition against the recent University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, 11 students have now filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking postponement of NEET and JEE(Mains) exams

New Delhi: After a petition for cancelation of final year University exams, now students are seeking the postponement of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test NEET and JEE(Main) exams which were scheduled to begin from September. According to a report by PTI, 11 students from 11 states have filed a plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking the postponement of JEE (Main) April 2020 and NEET-Undergraduate examinations due to the rising Covid 19 cases in the country.



Students in their petition have cited the worsening condition of the pandemic in the country for the deferment of the exams.

"Conducting the aforesaid examination across India at such perilous time, is nothing else but putting lives of lakhs of young students (including petitioners herein) at utmost risk and danger of disease and death. 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 lives of the students and their parents," said the plea which was filed through advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava.

They have also demanded an increase in exam centres and also questioned the arrangements of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

"It is respectfully submitted that the students who are well equipped with computers and strong internet connection will give online exams while in the other hand the students who are unable to give and arrange online exams, will have to come to exam centres by risking their lives. This is discrimination between students which must be avoided," it claimed.

It also brought out the issue that some states have called for a cancellation of exams and have refused to allow exams to be held due to the Covid 19 situation.

"While deciding to conduct the aforesaid JEE (Main) April-2020 and NEET UG-2020 exams in the month of 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 said.

Last month the HRD Ministry had postponed both the exams from July to August. In the earlier schedule, the  NEET was scheduled for July 26, while the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)-Mains for admission to engineering colleges was to be held from July 18-23. JEE-Advanced was to be conducted on August 23. In the revised schedule in which JEE(Mains) was supposed to be held between September 1-6, while JEE-advanced were to be held on September 27. NEET examination was shifted to September 13.

Since the coronavirus outbreak and the worsening of the situation in India, parents, and students have been demanding the cancellation of the exams. Several online petitions and Twitter campaigns were also started, requesting the government to postpone the engineering and medical entrance exams as well. Parents of nearly 4,000 NRI students based in West Asia also filed a petition in the Supreme Court Wednesday demanding that NEET be a postponement. They noted that there are no exam centres outside India and international travel is still restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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