JEE, YOUR HONOUR, KAL HO NA HO

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition by students seeking postponement of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled to held in September 2020.

"Are you ready to waste one whole year? Covid may continue for a year more, " remarked Justice Arun Mishra, who was heading the 3-member Bench.

He said the career of students cannot be put in jeopardy for long. "Life cannot be stopped. We have to move ahead with all safeguards...Now, the courts are also going to open gradually for physical hearing. We also have these glass panels,’’ he pointed out. The 0ther judges on the Bench were Justice s BR Gavai and Krishna Murari.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the National Testing Agency which holds both JEE and NEET, told the apex court that all safeguards will be in place while holding the exam.

The advocate for 11 student petitioners from 11 states told the court that lakhs of them are looking at Supreme Court for relief. He reminded the court that Prime Minister had also said on Independence Day that a vaccine is on its way and, therefore, examinations should be postponed in the interim. The Bench, however, snubbed him by observing that his demand would lead to a one-year delay in admissions to medical and engineering colleges, which cannot be beneficial for students.

The petitioner had claimed that the decision to hold the JEE (main) exam through online mode from September 1 to 6 and NEET UG2020 through offline mode on September 13 at 161 centres across India is arbitrar y, whimsical and violative of the fundamental right to life of lakhs of affected students.

The plea said that the Institution of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) had cancelled the CA exams citing COVID-19 risk and the remaining exams of CBSE/ICSE/ISC have also been cancelled. It said that the Common Law Admission Entrance Test (CLAT) and the National Institute of Open School exams have also been postponed. FINAL EXAMS

Another Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan is to hear yet another petition on Tuesday on the University Grants Commission’s decision to hold exams for the final-year students in August and September, if the students want graduation degrees.