Students File Plea in SC to Postpone JEE Main & NEET Entrance Exams

A petition demanding postponement of the Joint Entrance Exam Main (JEE Main 2020), and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET 2020) has been filed today. The engineering and medical entrance exams are scheduled to be held in September. Students, concerned about their health and safety, have been demanding a further postponement of JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020.

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Postpone JEE Main and NEET:

As per reports, 11 JEE and NEET students from 11 states have filed a petition in the Supreme Court for seeking relief for postponement of the JEE Advanced 2020 and NEET 2020 exams. The students sought for more number of exam centres as a precautionary measure and urged for transport facilities to and from the examination centres.

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

“COVID cases are rising alarmingly and students are suffering from severe stress and anxiety,” said advocate Alakh Alok Shrivastava, who is also the lawyer for students who moved Supreme court against the UGC guidelines on university exams.

https://twitter.com/advocate_alakh/status/1291204584812081153

The “India Wide Parents Association” previously wrote to NTA and the Education Ministry, asking that JEE Main and NEET be postponed. The association cited previous examples to argue that conducting exam during a pandemic is not feasible.

Plea:

"While deciding to conduct the aforesaid JEE (Main) April-2020 and NEET UG-2020 exams in the month of September, 2020, the respondents (NTA and others) have overlooked that many states have refused to allow conducting of any professional or non-professional exams in their states at this stage and hence the same is likely to cause unimaginable harassment to the petitioners and other similarly situated students," the plea added.

"It is respectfully submitted that the students who are well equipped with computer and strong internet connection will give online exams while in other hand the students who are unable to give and arrange online exams, will have to come to exam centres by risking their lives. This is a discrimination between students which must be avoided," it claimed.

The plea has alleged that concerned authorities have ignored the plight of lakhs of students from Bihar, Assam and north eastern states. In addition, which are presently reeling under flood, and conducting either online or offline exams in such places may not be possible.

“Despite our written Request, Education Ministry and NTA have not yet postponed NEET and JEE Exams,” Mr Shrivastava added.

Despite student protest, no decision for the postponement of JEE Main 2020 or NEET 2020 has been taken yet by the National Testing Agency (NTA). It conducts these entrance examinations, or the Ministry of Education (MoE).

According to the latest information, JEE Main 2020 will be conducted from September 1 to September 6, 2020, and NEET 2020, on September 13.

While the majority want JEE and NEET exams to be deferred. Some have also demanded that the exams are conducted as per schedule.

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