New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to postpone Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE 2022) exams, scheduled to begin from February 5.

With this, the GATE 2022 exams will now be held physically as per schedule on February 5, 6, 12, and 13.

As many as 11 GATE candidates had appealed to the Supreme Court, urging it to issue directions to the central government and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur (the organisers of the GATE 2022) for postponement of the exams in view of the recent Covid-19 surge.

However, a bench of the apex court, led by Justice DY Chandrachud, told the petitioners today that the exams are a policy matter on part of the government, and any interference by the court at this stage would only lead to “chaos and uncertainty” among students.

The bench said that it is a matter of academic policy as to when the examination should be held and the court cannot enter this arena.

GATE is an examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science for admission to the master’s programme and recruitment by some public sector companies.

GATE 2022 has added two new papers Geomatics Engineering (GE) and Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (NM). The authorities claim that the new papers will provide direct benefits to graduates in these two areas, especially when the country needs human resources with advanced capabilities in Ship Building Industries and Geo-informatics.