GATE 2022: Supreme Court Refuses to Postpone Exams Scheduled For February 5

GATE 2022: It has been said that students are appearing in the test at 200 centers and the authorities have not issued any COVID-appropriate guidelines for conducting the exam.

New Delhi: In a setback for lakh of students, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to postpone this year’s Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE 2022) exams, asserting that delaying the test might lead to “chaos and uncertainty” among candidates. A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana, Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli made the observation while hearing a plea seeking an interim stay on the GATE 2022.

Supreme Court refuses to postpone Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering exam, 2022 (GATE 2022) in view of the third wave of COVID-19, saying postponement of the exam will create "chaos & uncertainty" among students pic.twitter.com/8sNnTVWD7y

— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2022

It has been said that nine lakh students are appearing in the test at 200 centers and the authorities have not issued any COVID-appropriate guidelines for conducting the exam.

“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 had claimed.

The GATE is an examination that tests the understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science for admission into the Masters Programme and Recruitment by some PSUs. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kahargpur is conducting the exam from February 4-13.

Earlier on Wednesday, IIT Kharagpur had released the GATE 2022 Travel Pass for the candidates to facilitate their movement from the examination centres. Students can download the travel pass from the official website gate.iitkgp.ac.in.