Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 2: In view of the third wave of the COVID-19, the Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to examine a petition requesting a postponement of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering Exam, 2022 (GATE 2022). Over 23,000 candidates who were scheduled to take the GATE exam in February signed a petition asking for the exam to be postponed.
The test will be held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kahargpur from February 4 to 13. This year’s exam will be held from February 4 to 13 at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kahargpur.
“With the current third wave, Covid-19 due to its new variant Omicron has spread severely in several states, cities. Several studies including one done by IIT Kanpur predict that the peak of the 3rd wave is expected in early February and the wave will end by April. Therefore, the peak is most likely to coincide with the usual exam dates of GATE,” the petition read
“If the exam dates are not postponed, the candidates appearing for GATE 2022 run an imminent risk of getting infected and spreading it thereby getting threat to their life as well as their family member’s lives,” it added.
After attorney Pallav Mongia, standing for petitioners, mentioned the issue for urgent hearing, a Bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli would list the matter for hearing.
In this case, two petitions have been filed: one by students/candidates taking the GATE 2022 Exam, and another by Umesh Dhande, who owns an education institute that trains students for GATE and other exams.
“The country is currently suffering from a ‘third Wave’ of rising COVID cases with a number of daily cases touching a record 3 lakh and above. In this frightening situation that has engulfed the whole country, the Petitioners are being forced to write the GATE 2022 physically which poses a massive health risk on the lives of many aspirants like the petitioners,” the pleas said.
