The Supreme Court will consider today a review petition filed jointly by six ministers, each from non-BJP-ruled states, for deferring the NEET and JEE. After the retirement of Justice Arun Mishra, the new bench will be led by Justice Ashok Bhushan. The hearing will be taken up by the judges in-chamber.
A total of six ministers each from non-BJP-ruled states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Maharashtra had filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against the apex court’s 17 August decision refusing to postpone the NEET and JEE. The petitioners are Moloy Ghatak, Labour Minister (West Bengal), Dr Rameshwar Oraon, Finance Minister (Jhakhand), Dr Raghu Sharma, Health Minister (Rajasthan), Amarjeet Bhagat, Food Minister (Chhattisgarh), Balbir Singh Sidhu, Health Minister (Punjab) and Uday Samant, Education Minister (Maharashtra).
The petitioners have stated that if the court’s decision of refusing to postpone the NEET and JEE is not reviewed then it would cause grave and irreparable harm to the students. They further said that postponing the examination by 6 to 8 weeks would give adequate time to the central government to arrange adequate transportation like special buses, trains and flights, in consultation with the state governments, so that the students have hassle-free and safe access to their examination centres.
As per the National Testing Agency (NTA), approximately 9.53 lakh and 15.97 lakh students have registered for the JEE (Main) and NEET (UG) 2020, respectively, which would mean that 25 lakh students cumulatively would be appearing for these two examinations.
“The Central government is focused on avoiding contagion at the examination centres. They failed to appreciate the point that the process of reaching the examination centre itself can be a major source of contracting the infection. The union government has created an unfortunate situation whereby the candidates may become vectors and carry the infection back to their homes and put their parents, grandparents, family, relatives and friends at risk of infection. This multiplier effect will be disastrous for the health of the nation,” the plea said.