New Delhi: Six Ministers of opposition-ruled states moved Friday the Supreme Court. The six states are seeking review of the Supreme Court’s order permitting the Centre to conduct NEET and JEE entrance exams this year. The six states do not want the exams to be conducted amid the persisting COVID-19 pandemic.
The review plea has been filed by ministers from West Bengal (Moloy Ghatak), Jharkhand (Rameshwar Oraon) and Rajasthan (Raghu Sharma). They have been joined by Chhattisgarh (Amarjeet Bhagat), Punjab (BS Sidhu) and Maharashtra (Uday Ravindra Sawant). The plea has been filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes.
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The Supreme Court had refused August 17 to interfere with the conduct of medical and engineering entrance exams – NEET and JEE. It had scheduled the exams to take place in September stating saying that life must go on. It also said students can’t lose a precious year due to the pandemic.
The apex court had dismissed a plea by one Sayantan Biswas seeking direction to National Testing Agency (NTA). It is the agency which conducts both the NEET and JEE exams. In the plea, Biswas had requested the Supreme Court to postpone the exams. However, the Supreme Court had and said that there was ‘absolutely’ no merit in the plea.
Earlier in the day Delhi Congress leaders and workers, including its president Anil Kumar, were detained by police Friday. They were detained a protest against the holding of the JEE and NEET exams amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several Congressmen were detained by the police near the Shastri Bhawan and taken to the Mandir Marg police station, Kumar said.
“The Centre and its education ministry are endangering the lives of 25 lakh students by being adamant on holding the JEE and NEET. The exams cannot happen when the number of coronavirus cases is going up in India,” he said.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is scheduled to be held on September 13. The engineering entrance exam JEE-Main has been planned from September 1-6. Around 8.58 lakh candidates have registered for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main. Around 15.97 lakh have registered for the NEET.