Six state cabinet ministers have filed a review petition in the Supreme Court and sought postponement of JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020 exams. Cabinet ministers from Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal have sought a review of the August 17 judgement of SC on JEE Main and NEET 2020 exams which had said the exams cannot be postponed.
JEE Main which is the entrance examination for entry into undergraduate engineering programmes and will be held between September 1 and 6. NEET (UG) 2020 will be held on September 13 and is the examination for entry into undergraduate medical programmes.
JEE Main 2020 will have 8,58,000 candidates while NEET 2020 will have 1.59 million candidates.
The petitioners said that the August 17 SC order does not take into account the safety and Right to Life of those appearing for JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020. It also said that there are teething logistical difficulties in conducting the examinations at the proposed dates.
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It also added that the SC order did not balance the competing but equally important aspect of student safety and conducting exams. The six state cabinet ministers have filed the petition in their individual capacity.
The petitioners include Raghu Sharma of Rajasthan government, Moly Ghatak of West Bengal government, Amarjeet Bhagat of Chattisgarh government, Rameshwar Oraon of Jharkhand government, Uday Samant of Maharashtra government and Balbir Singh Sidhu of Punjab government.
On August 17, the Supreme Court dismissed pleas to direct NTA to postpone JEE Main and NEET due to the coronavirus pandemic.
SC said the postponement of the exams would put students' careers in peril. Justice Arun Mishra said that, if exams were not held, students would lose an academic year. He also added that life should go on during COVID-19 and questioned how exams could be stopped.
