NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea for postponement of JEE (Main) and NEET examinations saying that any further delay in conducting the tests would result in waste of “precious year” for the students. The rescheduled JEE (Main) exams is to be held from September 1-6, while NEET-UG, also deferred earlier due to the pandemic, is slated for September 13.
“Life should move on. We have to go ahead. Precious one year of students will go waste,” a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said while dismissing a plea seeking that the exams be postponed due to surging cases of Covid-19 infections across the country. The bench said that even the courts are functioning during the pandemic and the examinations could also be conducted with proper safeguards in place.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the National Testing Agency (NTA), assured the bench that all precautionary steps will be taken by NTA while conducting the examinations. The court was hearing a plea filed by some students for quashing of the July 3 notification of NTA, announcing the dates of the IEE (Main) and NEET exams. The petitioners pleaded that the examinations be deferred till normalcy is restored as the virus is spreading and thousands are getting infected every day.
The plea had also sought direction to the authorities to increase the number of examination centres. The petitioners had also alleged that the authorities ignored the plight of lakhs of students from Bihar, Assam and north eastern states, which are presently reeling from flood situation, and conducting exams via online or offline method in such places may not be possible.