New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the review petition of six ministers from non-BJP ruled states to modify the earlier judgement of conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).
A constitutional bench comprising of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Krishna Murari released the order of not postponing NEET and JEE on a plea filed by ministers from West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Maharashtra.
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The bench had earlier denied postponing the exams by saying that the pandemic situation is expected to continue even in the next year and in such a case education must go on avoiding loss to the students.
In such case, the petitioners urged for the postponement of examinations by six to eight weeks so that government can arrange for adequate transportation i.e special buses, trains and flights for students to reach examination centres safely.
Besides, the petitioners also asked for more examination centres to avoid direct contact.
They had contended that many students come from non-metro, semi-urban, Tier 2, Tier 3 and rural areas and they would naturally be at a disadvantage as they might have to travel by public transport.
Some other issues which have been highlighted in the plea, including the transmission of coronavirus among the students, inaccessibility of accommodation in remote areas, limited options of exam centres etc, students residing in flood-hit areas will further be put into disadvantageous situation etc.
Meanwhile, JEE has already started and NEET is scheduled to start from September 13 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
