BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to reconsider its decision to conduct the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2020 on July 30 and 31, considering the situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice HP Sandesh passed the order directing the state to reconsider its decision and place the same on record at 2.30 pm on Wednesday.
The bench said that the situation has undergone a drastic change after the notification was issued on May 13, 2020 to conduct the CET on July 30 and 31. In the last two weeks, more than 5,000 COVID cases are detected in the state per day and more than 2,000 cases in Bengaluru which has more more than 5,000 containment zones, apart from containment zones in other cities, the bench added.
The bench also pointed out that, as per the SOP issued by MoH, no one is allowed to go out from containment zones. Also, public transport is not available and some students are coming from other states to appear for the CET. Considering all these issues, the state should reconsider the decision to hold the CET, the bench said in the order.
This was after hearing two separate PILs filed by Eric E Stephenes, Secretary of NSUI from Thiruvananthapuram and others, and Andulla Mannan Khan from Mysuru seeking directions to the state to defer the CET.
On May 13, 2020, the state government announced the dates of KCET which will help students planning for admission into engineering colleges across the state which have about 62,000 seats.