Pinnacle Court junked the plea to postpone GATE-2022 and delivered that ‘Can't Play With Students future’

The Top Court today dismissed the plea to postpone the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering Exam (GATE), which is scheduled to be held on February 5, in view of Covid restrictions in many parts of the country.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said that postponing GATE just 48 hours before the scheduled examination would result in chaos and uncertainty, and it cannot play with the career of students, who have prepared for it.

The bench said that it is a matter of academic policy as to when the examination should be held and the court cannot enter this arena.

Advocate Satpal Singh, appearing for another petitioner, submitted that many states have lockdown imposed on weekends, and holding the exam in such a situation is unfair. He urged for deferring the exam for a month.

"How do we know that the situation will be better after a month?", Justice Chandrachud asked. "You will never have an absolutely clear situation in all states. Look at the legitimacy of courts entering into these thickets. Just because some states have issues, how do we play with the careers of all students who have been preparing", the judge further remarked.

The court said there was no "overarching situation for the court under Article 32 of the Constitution to supplant the duties and functions of the regulatory authorities to hold the examination".

Justice Chandrachud stated that there would never be an "absolutely clear situation" under the circumstances, and the court would not want to intervene and create havoc in the future of the students because the virus was dominant in some of the States. The Bench said the examination was notified months back and the students should have prepared for it.

The bench said that it is a matter of academic policy as to when the examination should be held and the court cannot enter this arena. It noted that 9 lakh students are to appear in the examination and around 20,000 students have signed an online petition for postponing the examination.

Justice Chandrachud finally queried the petitioners' counsel, "Look at the legitimacy of courts entering into these thickets. Just because some states have issues, how do we play with the careers of all students..."

The examination is scheduled to be held offline in February. The Union and IIT Kharagpur are the regulatory authorities.