The Supreme Court, on February 3, refused to postpone the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering Exam (GATE), which is scheduled to be held on February 5, in view of the 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 that the court cannot enter this arena. It noted that nine lakh students are to appear for the examination and around 20,000 students have signed an online petition for postponing the examination. “The students have prepared for it and the court cannot play with the career of the students by postponing the examination,” the Bench observed. On February 2, the top court had agreed to list the plea seeking postponement of GATE.
GATE is an examination that tests the understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science for admission in Master's programmes and recruitment by some Public Sector Undertakings.