Six non-BJP ruled states approached the Supreme Court on Friday seeking a review of its order permitting the centre to allow the commencement of JEE and NEET examinations.
On August 17, the Supreme Court had dismissed a petition seeking the postponement of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), scheduled to be held in September.
Refusing to defer the examinations, the top court had said, “The careers of students can’t be put in jeopardy”.
Today, the six states which have approached the apex court regarding the postponement are West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Punjab and Maharashtra. Each of the states is represented by a minister.
Yesterday, a meeting was called by the opposition leaders in regards with the JEE and NEET examinations by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
At the meeting, the Chief Ministers had expressed concern that states would be blamed and the Centre would put the onus of conducting the exams on them, including arranging transportation and accommodation for students.
However, contrary to the demands raised by the opposition leaders, 150 academicians from various universities in India and abroad have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi supporting the conduct of NEET and JEE examinations in the hope that students will not lose a year.
These academicians including professors from Delhi University, IGNOU, Lucknow University, JNU, BHU, IIT Delhi, have said that delaying the medical and engineering entrance exams — JEE-Mains and NEET – any further will mean compromising the future of students.
The Joint Entrance Examination (Main) is scheduled from September 1-6, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) is planned on September 13. A total of 9.53 lakh candidates have registered for JEE-Mains, and 15.97 lakh students have registered for NEET.