NEET 2020 & JEE Mains: NTA says both exams will be conducted in September

Ministry of Education officials have finally confirmed that the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) will be conducted in September as scheduled. The Educations Ministry’s National Testing Agency (NTA) took to its Twitter on Friday, August 21 to confirm the news.

In the past few weeks, requests had been pouring in from thousands of students across the country, to postpone the NEET 2020 and JEE Main exams. However, the recent NTA announcement has put the matter to rest. Read on for more details.

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NTA’s official statement on Twitter

According to NTA, the NEET 2020 exam will be conducted on September 13, while the JEE Mains exam will be held from September 1-6. The JEE Mains and NEET 2020 exams are usually conducted in the month of April. However, this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exams were postponed.  

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How many students are appearing for the NEET 2020 and JEE Main exam?

In its official statement, the NTA has revealed that over 6.4 lakh candidates have downloaded the admit cards for the engineering entrance exam JEE-Main. A total of 6,49,223 candidates have downloaded the admit cards against a total of 8,58,273. According to the statement, the NTA was able to offer the first choice of preference of centre cities to 99.07 per cent of the JEE Main candidates.

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Moreover, the agency is also considering the requests of 142 candidates who had requested for a change in their allotted city centre. According to the NTA statement, as far as NEET 2020 is concerned, first-time candidates of the exam were given an opportunity to change their choice of the centre city five times. A total of 95,000 candidates availed the same and have been accommodated as per their revised choices.

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Supreme Court on NEET 2020 and JEE Mains

The Supreme Court had recently rejected a plea seeking postponement of NEET 2020 & JEE Mains exam. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said “life has to go on” despite the outbreak of a viral disease in the Monday, August 17 virtual hearing of the court.

The Bench further claimed that the court cannot put the career of students in jeopardy by interfering with the decision of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct the examinations in September. The NTA was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who assured that all of the safety precautions will be taken while holding the examinations.