NEET, JEE row: Supreme Court to hear review petition by 6 states seeking postponement

Source:-indiatoday

The Supreme Court of India is all set to hear a review plea filed by ministers of six non-BJP ruled states over the NEET, JEE exams. In their plea, the ministers have moved the apex court against its order allowing the NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) and JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) examinations to be held amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal (Nishank) has maintained that politics should be kept away from matters concerning students and their future.

As per the schedule listed by the National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducts the engineering and medical entrance examinations, the NEET exam will be held on September 13 while JEE Mains for under-graduate Engineering Colleges is slated to be held from September 1 to 6.

Ministers from Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena government, the JMM government in Jharkhand and Congress governments in Rajasthan and Punjab filed the review petition in the Supreme Court seeking postponement of the exams. The states have argued that postponement should be implemented in a manner so as to ensure that the academic year is not lost and the safety of students is not compromised.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, however, have voiced their support for the exams to be held timely as per the original schedule.

A bench of the apex court had in its order on August 17, dismissed a plea seeking postponement of the NEET and JEE exams. “Life cannot be stopped, the career of students cannot be put in jeopardy”, the Supreme Court had remarked.

In their review petition filed in the SC through advocate Sunil Fernandes, ministers of the six states have termed the order as “cryptic” and “non-speaking”. The petition goes on to say that the order does not take into account the complexities involved and the risk conducting an examination of this scale in the middle of a pandemic poses to the health and welfare of students.

Chief ministers of the six non-BJP states seeking postponement of NEET, JEE have also cited the lack of facilities such as transport, hotels and restaurants as factors that could cause discomfort to students appearing for these exams. Opposition parties, including the Congress and Samajwadi Party have been organising protests against the Centre’s decision to hold the exams on the original dates.

Measures such as special trains, concessions in terms of food and lodging have been made in multiple states for NEET and JEE aspirants. The IIT-Delhi has also urged its students and alumni to help aspirants appearing for JEE-Advanced reach exam centres in October.

Approximately 9.53 lakh students have registered for JEE (Main) and 15.97 lakh for NEET (Undergraduate) as per data released by the NTA. While JEE Mains will be conducted at over 660 exam centres across India, a total of 3,843 centres have been set up for NEET this year.