Kerala HC Orders Central Government to Assist Travel of Indian Students in Middle East for JEE Advanced 2020

Last updated on September 10th, 2020 at 03:36 pm

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign travel, visa issuance and other activities have been restricted. A few days ago, IIT Delhi decided not to conduct JEE Advanced 2020 in foreign exam centres amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Indian students staying abroad have to select the exam cities in India to take JEE Advanced 2020.

But, any flights from foreign countries are completely banned as of now. The only few flights running are through Vande Bharat Mission by the Ministry of External Affairs, which only caters to the Indian citizens. This created a huge problem for students who are not able to travel to India.

A section of students filed a petition with Kerala High Court. Advocate Haris Beeran of the Supreme Court of India, who spoke on behalf of the students, argued that foreign centres allotted for JEE Advanced 2020 have been cancelled. Parents and students are forced to travel back to India.

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NTA and Joint Admission Board informed the Kerala HC that they will not be able to conduct the exams due to the inability of exam officials to travel amid COVID-19 pandemic. On the basis of these arguments, Justice PV Asha of Kerala HC ordered the central government to assist the students in Middle East countries to travel in India, so that they can attend the JEE Advanced 2020 exam.

Kerala HC also said that it expects the state governments to exclude these students and their parents from 14-days mandatory quarantine as even though they are travelling from a foreign country, but need to attend the exam centre. Moreover, few students also have to attend the BITSAT exam, conducted by BITS Pilani, scheduled a few days after JEE Advanced 2020.

JEE Advanced 2020 is scheduled for 27th September 2020 with full COVID-19 Safety Protocols to be strictly enforced at all exam centres. Meanwhile, NTA recently conducted JEE Main 2020 between 1st to 6th September and has also released the JEE Main Answer Keys for all the papers.