HC asks TN if it took SC nod while appointing NEET panel

HC asks TN if it took SC nod while appointing NEET panel

Admissions Must Be Based Only On NEET: SC In 2017

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:30.06.2021

The Madras high court on Tuesday questioned the Tamil Nadu government over its decision to set up a committee to look into the impact of NEET on medical admissions, asking it whether it had obtained the permission of the Supreme Court and whether the move would not violate the apex court ruling.

When Tamil Nadu advocategeneral R Shunmugasundaram, responding to a PIL against the Justice A K Rajan Commission, said it was a policy decision backed by the demand of people and election promise of the ruling party, the first bench remarked: “May be. But if it is contrary to the Supreme Court order, then it cannot be permitted.”

The bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy later adjourned the hearing to July 5 with a direction to the state to file its response. It will also be open to the Union government to indicate its stand, the judges added. The PIL was filed by BJP’s Tamil Nadu secretary K Nagarajan, who wanted the court to quash the June 10 order constituting a committee headed by Justice Rajan to study the impact of NEET on socially backward students.

Setting up of NEET panel is an exercise in futility: Advocate

Advocate V Ragavachari, representing the petitioner, submitted that the setting up of the committee was an exercise in futility since any recommendation that such committee might make could not be implemented in the light of the view taken by the Supreme Court on NEET. Citing the Supreme Court order on NEET dated August 22, 2017, Raghvachari said the apex court had recorded in the judgement that ‘Tamil Nadu shall not make any kind of distinction or discrimination between the examinations conducted by various boards; and admissions shall be effected as per the result of the NEET examination.’ Therefore, there can be little room for the state to set up any committee for the purpose of ascertaining whether the NEET based admission process has prejudicially affected socially backward students, he added. “Tamil Nadu government ought to have noted that NEET is introduced in national interest, and any attempt to alter the same would derail the object and purpose of introduction of NEET,” the petitioner said.

TN government ought to have noted that NEET is introduced in national interest, and any attempt to alter the same would derail the purpose of introduction of NEET, the petitioner said