GATE 2022 not postponed; Supreme Court dismisses pleas, says ‘can’t play with students’ career’

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed the petitions seeking postponement of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2022 due to Covid-19 pandemic. A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said “entertaining the petition 48 hours before the exam will lead to uncertainty and chaos”, Live Law reported.

GATE 2022 is scheduled to be held on February 5, 6, 12, 13, 2022. Candidates have been demanding postponement of GATE 2022 owing to the prevailing third wave of Covid-19. Following this, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli on Wednesday agreed to list the matters urgently.

However, Justice Chandrachud observed that "We can't postpone exams. Now everything is opening up. These are academic matters which the authorities must decide. It is dangerous for the Courts to be stepping into this arena. We can't play with the career of students."

It noted that nine lakh students are to appear in the examination and around 20,000 students have signed an online petition for postponing the examination.

After Advocate Pallav Mongia submitted that over 9 lakh students are appearing for GATE 2022, the apex court said, “Some petitioners have approached this court. Many others might have prepared. Now if two days before the exam the Supreme Court stays, it will create chaos".

9 lakh students are appearing for the GATE 2022 exam across 200 exam centers. IIT Kharagpur has also recently issued a travel pass for candidates to reach the exam centre as many states have imposed Covid-19 restrictions. IIT Kharagpur released the GATE 2022 admit card on January 15 at gate.iitkgp.ac.in.