NEET, JEE exams to go as per schedule; SC rejects six state's plea to review 17 Aug order

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the plea seeking review of its 17 August order by which it allowed the Centre to go ahead with the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) and the Joint Entrance Examination (Main). Hearing the petition filed by ministers of six Opposition-ruled states, the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari said, “The plea does not merit reconsideration.” Hearing the matter in-chamber. The bench also rejected the applications seeking listing of the review petition in the open court. “Applications seeking permission to file review petitions are allowed. We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petitions and the same are accordingly dismissed,” the bench said. The apex court, in its earlier judgement, had upheld the Centre’s decision to hold the exams and said that “a crucial year of students cannot be wasted and life has to go on” while dismissing the students’ pleas for postponement. The review pleas was filed by ministers from West Bengal (Moloy Ghatak), Jharkhand (Rameshwar Oraon), Rajasthan (Raghu Sharma), Chhattisgarh (Amarjeet Bhagat), Punjab (BS Sidhu) and Maharashtra (Uday Ravindra Sawant). The order comes as JEE exams are already underway in the country while students await the NEET-UG exam. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts both the exams, started the JEE (Main) Exams on 1 September. It will conclude on 6 September. Whereas, the NEET exams will be held on 13 September. The exam has received a luke warm response from students, many of whom had been opposing the idea of having to write an important exam amid a pandemic.

A News18 report said that nearly 25 percent of aspirants have skipped the exam within the first three days, quoting Education Ministry data.

“Of the total 4,58,521 students who had registered to sit for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main for admission to engineering colleges, at least 1,14,563 students dropped out from appearing in the first three days.” In a day-wise break down, the news website revealed that about 54.67 percent aspirants gave the exam on day one, 81 percent gave it on day two, and the attendance on day three was 82 percent. For weeks, many students have protested against these tests, pointing towards India’s growing COVID-19 caseload, the lockdown in several states and the flood-like situation in some areas which has made transportation difficult. But the National Testing Agency (NTA) has been unrelenting.