The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected petitions demanding a postponement of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering Exam (GATE) 2022. The GATE 2022 exam will be held on February 5, 6, 12 and 13, 2022 in computer-based test (CBT) mode.
According to reports, a bench made up of judges DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said that taking any action on the petitions 48 hours prior to the start of the exam will lead to uncertainty.
“The plea for the postponement of the GATE exam barely 48 hours before its scheduled date of February 5, 2022 is rife with a tendency to chaos and uncertainty in the lives of the students who have applied for the exam. There is no overarching reason that this court, in exercising its jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution, should replace the duties and functions of the regulatory authorities that have decided to hold the investigation,” the bank said.
The bench said it is a matter of academic policy when the exam should be held and that the court should not enter this arena. It noted that nine lakh students will appear in the exam and about 20,000 students have signed an online petition to postpone the exam.
“The students have prepared for it and the court cannot play with the students’ careers by postponing the exam,” the bank noted.
On Wednesday, the highest court agreed to list GATE’s plea for a postponement.
The petitioners argued that the country is currently facing an increasing number of Covid cases with daily cases reaching a record 3 lakh and above.
While claiming that more than 9 lakh students appear for the exam in 200 exam centers, the petitioners argued that the IIT Kharagpur has not issued any guidelines or established procedures to assess the health status of the students appearing for the exam. — With PTI inputs.
