West Bengal, Punjab & 4 states file review petition in SC over JEE, NEET

New Delhi: Six opposition-ruled states have filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its order allowing the central government to hold the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in September.

West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan have approached the top court against the August 17 order.

The top court had dismissed another petition to postpone these entrance exams to engineering and medical colleges on August 17. A crucial year of students “cannot be wasted” and “life has to go on”, Supreme Court had said in the order.

National Testing Agency (NTA) has given a directive to conduct JEE from September 1 to 6, and NEET on September 13.

In an organised show of protest against holding these exams amid Covid-19 outbreak, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had called for a meeting of opposition-ruled states leaders on August 26.

During the  meeting, CM Mamata Banerjee had suggested approaching the Supreme Court again for postponing the exams owing to the prevailing Covid-19 situation. 

“This will be my request to all the state governments, let us do it together, let us go to the Supreme Court and postpone the exam for the time being until and unless the situation allows students to appear for the exams,” she had said.