Indore: Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court issued show cause notice to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, IIT Kanpur, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) and Ministry of Human Resource Department (HRD) on public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a JEE aspirant who was denied a chance at JEE Advanced due to corona.
Justice Satish Sharma and Shailendra Shukla granted three weeks to the government to file its reply on the petition,” said advocate Nitin Singh Bhati, who is representing petitioner Kuldeep Upadhyay in the court. The next hearing in the case has been set for November 2, 2020.
Upadhyay filed the petition seeking a chance to appear for JEE Advanced 2020 having qualified JEE Main 2020.
Three years of hard work of Upadhyaya is going to waste if he does not get to appear for the examination and fulfil his dream of studying in IITs.
The petitioner sought direction for the respondents to take his JEE advance exam in isolation room as per the COVlD-19 SOP (standard operating procedure) issued by MHFW and HRD.
Upadhyay is a student, who has been preparing for llT- JEE for the last three years. He is an intelligent student who cleared JEE Mains 2020 with 96.89 percentile.
Petitioner was eligible for appearing in the JEE Advanced 2020, which was conducted on 27/09/2020.
As per the notification of the examination, the petitioner started preparing for the exam, registered and received admit card.
On 23/09/2020 the petitioner was declared Covid-19 positive through a rapid test at Government Hospital in Rajgarh. However, the petitioner was completely asymptomatic and had no signs of Covid-19.
Being asymptomatic, the petitioner tried to contact the IIT authorities conducting JEE examination by several means of communications like phone calls and e-mails, but there was no reply from the authorities.
Then the petitioner also tried to inform the Examination centre regarding his Covid Test and requested for the isolation room so that he can appear in the aforesaid examination.
Denied entry on exam day
Unfortunately, on the day of the examination, he was not permitted to enter the premises. Petitioner could have suppressed the information regarding his Covid Test and would have been able to attempt the examination but because of his utmost sincerity, he couldn't.
Due to ethics and ‘sanskar’, now the petitioner is suffering at present. After being denied access to the examination centre, the petitioner approached collector, who urged examination authority to do the needful as per COVID—19 SOP. Yet, the student was not allowed.
Relief Sought: A chance at JEE Advanced 2020
To issue writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate order or direction directing the respondents to permit petitioner to appear in JEE advance exam in isolation room as per the COVlD-19 SOP consider the case on merit.
To issue directions to the examination authority to conduct JEE Advanced 2020 exam for the petitioner.
