Supreme Court favours NEET, JEE Mains exams amid COVID-19 citing career risk of students

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (August 17) dismissed a plea seeking postponement of JEE (Main) April 2020 and NEET-Undergraduate examinations amid COVID-19 pandemic situation, saying that the career of students "cannot be put under jeopardy for long". 

As many as 28 lakh students preparing for these competitive exams felt a sigh of relief as the three-member bench of the top court noted that precious year of students cannot be wasted. The DNA report will tell you about other key observations of the apex court.

Declining to entertain the plea, the court told the petitioners` counsel that education should be opened up, as COVID-19 may continue for a year more, adding "Are you going to wait another year?". 

The Supreme Court said, "Life has to go on. Life has to move ahead. Precious year of students cannot be wasted," during the hearing conducted through video conferencing. The top court thus paved the way for the commencement of the exams as scheduled, besides giving relief to lakhs of students as well as their families. 

The three-member bench of the Supreme Court told the petitioners` counsel, "Are you not demanding that the court should be opened up amid COVID? Do you see this glass partition here? When we are getting ready to open up, you say exams should not be held?"

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, contended before the bench that exams should be conducted, and all the necessary precautions will be taken. Mehta told the apex court that due precautions and all safeguards would be taken while conducting these examinations.

The counsel appearing for the petitioners, however, told the bench that lakhs of students are looking towards the top court for relief and they were only seeking postponement of these exams.

The plea was filed by 11 students belonging to 11 states. They sought to quash the July 3 notices issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA), by which it was decided to conduct the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) April 2020 and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-Undergraduate exams in September.

JEE (Main) April 2020 is scheduled from September 1-6, while NEET-UG 2020 exam is scheduled for September 13, according to the NTA's public notices.

This year around 11 lakh students will appear for the JEE Mains Entrance Examination while as many as 17 lakh students have registered them to take the NEET Examination.

The plea, filed through advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, referred to COVID-19 pandemic stating that authorities be directed to conduct these exams only after normalcy is restored. The plea also sought the court direction to the authorities to increase the number of examination centers.

The petition said, "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 the COVID-19 crisis subside, and then only conduct these exams, in order to save lives of the students and their parents." 

It had alleged that NTA has indefinitely postponed the National Council of Hotel Management Joint Entrance Examination-2020, which was scheduled to be conducted on June 22, in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It further said that authorities have ignored the plight of lakhs of students from Bihar, Assam and northeastern states, which are presently reeling under flood, and added that conducting either online or offline exams in such places may not be possible.

Hearing the arguments of both the parties, the Supreme Court observed that the future of the students cannot be put at stake, therefore, the examinations should be held on time. 

Students can now expect that their admit cards for both the exams would be issued soon. 

The top court, however, has given an observation that coronavirus will remain for a long time and we should get used to living with it while taking all the necessary precautions.