Six opposition-ruled state governments have filed a review plea in the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of the August 17 order to conduct the JEE-NEET exams in September amid COVID-19.
In the earlier verdict on August 17, the Supreme Court had given the permissions to conduct JEE Main and NEET examinations amid the pandemic situations. The review plea is filed by six different states including West Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand in their individual capacity.
The review petitioners are West Bengal law minister Maloy Ghatak, Jharkhand finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, Rajasthan health minister Dr Raghu Sharma, Chhattisgarh food minister Amarjeet Bhagat, Punjab health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and Maharashtra education minister Uday R Samant.
The plea has urged the court to issue directions for the cancelation of exams in view of the secure safety, security, and right to life of students.
“It would be impossible to make provision for the huge logistics required for lakhs of students appearing in the examinations, including transport and lodging during the pandemic,” stated the plea.
The date for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main has been scheduled from September 1 to 6 and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is scheduled on September 13.
In its earlier order, Supreme Court rejected the petition seeking postponement of JEE-NEET 2020 exams while stating, “a crucial year of students cannot be wasted and life has to go on.
