MHT CET 2020 exam date: Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking postponement; says refer to NEET and JEE Main 2020 order

The Supreme Court has on Monday dismissed a plea seeking the postponement of Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT CET) 2020. According to Bar and Bench, an apex court bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice R Subhash Reddy said, “We have allowed conducting of NEET and JEE, how can we now stop exams in one state? You should have checked our orders.” On 17 August, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking the postponement of JEE Main 2020 and NEET UG 2020 entrance examinations. The top court said that the postponement of exams will result in students losing an academic year and will put their careers in peril. JEE Main 2020, the entrance exam for admission into engineering institutes, will be held online from 1 to 6 September, while NEET 2020, held for admission to undergraduate medical courses, is slated to be conducted offline on 13 September. Times Now reported that students and parents have been demanding the cancellation of the common entrance examination in Maharashtra due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. A few days ago, Commission of CET cell Sandeep Kadam said that the exam will be conducted online but not in a proctored manner. He also said that there was no chance of considering scored of JEE Mains for engineering admissions. The Times of India had reported that earlier Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant had postponed the entrance test for various subjects of the Department of Higher Education and Technical Education, which are conducted on behalf of Maharashtra Common Entrance Examination Cell. This year a total of 5.5 lakh students have registered for MHT CET. The exam was earlier scheduled to be conducted in July and August but has been postponed due COVID-19 pandemic. MHT CET is conducted for admission to engineering and pharmacy courses in the colleges of the state. Maharashtra has so far reported over 6 lakh 82 thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19. More than 22 thousand people have died of the disease in the state.