The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday said that any student residing in flood-hit parts of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region who are not able to reach the exam centre or reach late can apply to the National Testing Agency to seek a re-examination.
The court refused to put a stay on the JEE-Main examination. A division bench of Justices Ravi Deshpande and Pushpa Ganediwala said that the National Testing Agency (NTA) shall consider such applications and decide.
“The situation is grim in several districts due to flood. Students should not suffer for no fault on their part”, the bench said.
“The National Testing Agency shall then decide on the application after consulting with the district collector concerned within a period of 15 days”, the court ordered.
The court said any aggrieved student can file an application to the NTA via their centre coordinator.
The engineering Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main began at 9 am on September 1 across the country on Tuesday.
The high court on Monday took cognisance of a letter written by Nitesh Bawankar, a resident of Bhandara district, raising concern over how students will reach the exam centres to appear for the JEE amid the flood situation.
Bawankar sought postponement of the exams for students affected by the flood in the parts of Nagpur, Amravati, Akola, Chandrapur, Gondia and Gadchiroli districts.
The court on Monday directed the Union government, Maharashtra government, National Testing Agency and collectors of these districts to consider postponing the JEE-Main for students from flood-affected areas who would be unable to reach the centres to appear for the exam.
