[Breaking] 11 students move Supreme Court seeking cancellation of Joint Entrance Exam and NEET amid COVID-19 in September

Eleven students from as many states, and aspirants of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Entrance Eligibility Test (NEET), have approached the Supreme Court to cancel the exams scheduled for September.The petitioners have sought directions to the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct the exams only when normalcy returns after the COVID-19 pandemic..The petition filed by Advocate Anubha Srivastava Sahai and to be argued by Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava has urged the Apex Court to direct the Centre and ensure that the JEE (Main) exams scheduled for September 1-6 and the NEET UG-2020 scheduled on September 13, be cancelled..The petitioners also urge the Court to increase the number of NEET and JEE examination centres across the country and provide at least one centre in one district of each state..The plea further seeks the indulgence of the Court so that aspirants are allowed fresh opportunities to fill the application forms. .The aggrieved students have stated that even though exams are due to be held in September, the rising COVID-19 cases remain as a major concern. .Lakhs of young students are likely to appear in the aforesaid JEE (Main) April-2020 and NEET UG-2020 Exams in the months of September, 2020. Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are increasing in India at an alarming rate. The deadly pandemic COVID-19 has already affected about 20 Lakh people in India and situation is worsening by every passing day. Conducting the aforesaid examination across India at such perilous time, is nothing else but putting lives of lakhs of young students (including Petitioners herein) at utmost risk and danger of disease and death.reads the plea in SC.The plea states that the NTA's decision to hold the exams in September is "utterly arbitrary, whimsical and violative of the fundamental right to life of lakhs of the affected students as enshrined within Article 21 of the Constitution of India and thus liable to quashed and set aside on this ground alone.".The plea substantiates the request to cancel the September scheduled exams in view of the recent decision of NTA whereby the National Council of Hotel Management Joint Entrance Examination (NCHM-JEE) – 2020, scheduled to be conducted on June 22 was indefinitely postponed. .The 11 students in this case states that they need parity with the 10th and 12th standard students scheduled to appear for CA, ICSE and CBSE exams who were exempted from tests during COVID-19 after the the top court had intervened.