Today, the Supreme Court of India will hear a plea sought the postponement of JEE Main 2020 and NEET UG examinations which are scheduled to be conducted in September amid the Covid-19 pandemic today i.e., August 17, 2020. The plea will be heard by the SC Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.

A notice was issued on July 3 by National Test Agency (NTA), that the engineering and medical courses entrance exams that are to be conducted from September 1 to 6, will be held from September 13, 2020. However, around 11 students from 11 states across India, due to pandemic have appealed to the Supreme Court for the postponement of JEE and NEET exams that are to be held in September. The Supreme Court will hear the petition today, filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, the plea will be heard by the SC bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.

The students and the parents have requested to the SC to conduct the exams when the situation will be normal and with no further risk. In the petition, it is been mentioned that conducting exams in such a pandemic situation is nothing but risking the lives of the students. The plea to the SC by the students and their parents is to conduct the exams once the Covid-19 pandemic situation ends and the country turns back to its normalcy. The petition also seeks an increase in the examination centers so as to provide one exam center in every district of India. The petition states that the NTA decided to conduct JEE through online mode and NEET offline at 161 centres across India, which are "utterly arbitrary, whimsical and violative of fundamental rights to life of lakhs of the affected students."

Meanwhile, parents of upto four students also moved the Supreme Court asking that JEE and NEET entrance exams be conducted in September as per revised schedule released by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on July 3. The petition, filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, will come up for hearing before the top court today.

As per the schedule released by the National Testing Agency i.e. NTA, the hall tickets or exam admit cards for JEE Main 2020 and NEET 2020 exams are expected to be released soon.