NEET 2020, JEE Mains to be held from Sep 1; SC rejects postponement plea

The Supreme Court stated that a postponement of the NEET and JEE 2020 would put the 'career of students in peril'

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea to postpone the JEE Mains and NEET exams. The plea moved in the apex court had sought that public notices issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct the JEE (Main) April 2020 exam between September 1 and 6 and the NEET on September 13 be quashed and set aside in view of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The petitioners' had urged the SC to give directions to the Centre to conduct JEE and NEET exams only after normalcy was restored in the country after the Covid-19 crisis.

Filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava on behalf of 11 students from 11 states, the plea contended that hundreds of thousands of young students were likely to appear in the JEE (Main) April-2020 and NEET UG-2020 exam in the month of September.

"There's a chance of vaccine for coronavirus coming soon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about it in his Independence Day speech," advocate Srivastava said, adding that they weren't seeking an indefinite postponement of the exam, but a postponement for some time.

"The deadly coronavirus pandemic has already affected over 2 million people in India and the situation does not seem to be improving. Conducting the examination across India at such a perilous time is nothing else but putting lives of hundreds of thousands of young students at utmost risk and danger of disease and death," said the plea.