MLA moves HC to wrest higher edu back on state list

MLA moves HC to wrest higher edu back on state list

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.09.2021

A service organisation founded by a DMK MLA has moved Madras high court challenging the 42nd constitutional amendment through which higher education was transferred from the State List to the Concurrent List. If he succeeds in his plea, the state would be able to do away with NEET and NEP (New Education Policy).

The petition has been filed Aram Seyya Virumbu Trust through its representative, Dr Ezhilan Naganathan, a DMK MLA from Thousand Lights.

He has challenged the validity of Section 57 of the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976 which deleted Entry 11 of List II (State List) of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution and effectively transferred the subject of education to List III (Concurrent List).

Ezhilan said Section 57 violates the basic structure doctrine for the reason that the said amendment resulted in upsetting the federal structure envisaged by the Constitution framers. “By virtue of transferring the subject of education from List II to List III, the States’ executive/legislative autonomy in the matters of education has become subservient to Union’s executive/legislative powers,” he said.

The petitioner further pointed out that education has been treated as a provincial subject across various Constitutions like those of Canada, Australia, the US and even India prior to impugned amendment.

Noting that federalism is a basic structure of the constitution, the petitioner said, “…it was not the intention of the constitution makers to grant untrammelled power to the Union government with regard to the very basic subjects such as primary education.”

The plea moved as a PIL is likely to be taken up for hearing by the first bench headed by the Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee.