The Supreme Court of India on Friday dismissed a plea that challenged its August 17 order which allowed the Centre to conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) and the Joint Entrance Examination (Main).
The plea, filed by six opposition-ruled states, sought postponement of the exams. The plea was reviewed by the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari who said, “The plea does not merit reconsideration.”
“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 held an “in-chamber’ hearing consisting of judges only with no lawyer allowed to enter or attend.
The review plea was filed by Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. It came after the SC dismissed a PIL by students seeking postponement of the two most important entrance exams of the country.
Meanwhile, the JEE exams are already underway in the country while Neet are to be held on September 13.
The National Testing Agency(NTA), which conducts both the eams, has begun the JEE exams from September 1 and are to be concluded on September 6.
The exams received a mixed response across the country. While some emphasised on saving one precious year of students’ lives, other criticized the decision saying exams amid a global pandemic will add on mental pressure on students.
According to a report of News18, nearly 25 per cent of the candidates have skipped the exam withing the first three days.
“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,” it said.
