The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petition filed by cabinet ministers of six non-BJP ruled states seeking review of the apex court’s 17 August order that allowed holding of Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). “We find no merit in the review petitions and the same are accordingly dismissed,” the court said.
On 28 August, a total of six ministers each from nonBJP-ruled states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Maharashtra had filed a review petition in the Supreme Court. The petitioners had stated that if the decision of refusing to postpone the exams was not reviewed, then it would cause grave and irreparable harm on the students. They had further said that postponing the examination by 6 to 8 weeks would give adequate time to the central government to arrange adequate transportation i.e. special buses, trains and flights in consultation with the state governments, so that the students could have a hassle free and safe access to their examinations centre.
As per the National Testing Agency (NTA), approximately 9.53 lakh and 15.97 lakh students have registered for 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 the contagion at the examination centers. 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.
The ministers who filed the petition 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).