SC dismisses plea again seeking postponing NEET

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court again dismissed a petition seeking postponement of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on Wednesday.

On August 17, the apex court had dismissed pleas on delaying the conduct of NEET and JEE until the Covid-19 situation in the country gets back to normal, stating that the careers of students cannot be put into jeopardy by postponing the test indefinitely.

"We find that there is absolutely no justification in the prayer made for postponement of the NEET UG-2020 as well as JEE (Main) April 2020. In our opinion, though there is a pandemic situation, ultimately, life has to go and the career of the students cannot be put in peril as the long and full academic year cannot be wasted."

A review petition against the said order, filed by 6 state ministers, was also dismissed on September 5. The petitioners had stressed that they did not seek cancellation of the exam but a mere postponement.

Justice Ashok Bhushan reiterated that “Everything is over now. The review has also been dismissed. JEE is also over. How can we consider the petition now?

Advocate Shoeb Alam said that a number of violations of the MHA guidelines took place during the conduct of JEE exams from September 1-6. He also argued that the SOP applied to all exams.

Justice M.R. Shah said that all arrangements have been made by the authorities. Exam is just a few days away.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah was considering three petitions. NEET is due to be held on September 13.