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New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to pass a direction to Centre to hold the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Undergraduate (UG) 2020 at examination centres in Gulf countries.
However, while hearing the plea, the apex court asked the government to allow students to come via 'Vande Bharat Mission' flights to appear for the NEET UG exams.
Regarding the COVID-19 quarantine norms, the top court said though there can be no relaxation, the concerned state authorities can be approached to seek relaxation.
The petitioner had claimed that around 4000 students in the Gulf region would be taking the NEET but were unable to travel to India due to ban on international flights.
Both the National Testing Authority (NTA) and Medical Council of India (MCI) had opposed the request by the petitioner stating that 'in order to fairly conduct an examination like NEET, which has to be a uniform examination, it is imperative that the examination is conducted at the same time everywhere, which shall not be possible, if examination is conducted in outside countries due to various reasons including different time zones, logistical issues, secrecy of test papers, etc being a booklet-based examination'.
In a statement, NTA highlighted the court (relating to NEET UG-2020 and JEE (Main) 2020) that though there is a pandemic situation, life has to go on and the career of students cannot be put in peril for long and a full academic year cannot be wasted.
Earlier, the SC had categorically stated that the NEET UG exams will be held as per schedule. The admit cards for the NEET UG exams, scheduled to be held on September 13, are scheduled to be released shortly. As per the NTA's statement, out of the total of 15,97,433 candidates, 99.87 per cent are being given the first choice of their preferred city.
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