Editorial: Fighting a foregone conclusion?

With the Tamil Nadu assembly returning the Bill seeking exemption from NEET in medical admissions to the Governor’s office once again after unanimously passing it for a second time, the DMK government might have stuck to its poll promise to medical aspirants on taking all efforts to abolish NEET. 

But the move has only increased confusion among students on the inevitability of the common entrance test. Since the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) conducted by the Medical Council of India was designated as the only qualifying exam for medical admissions across the country in 2016, the State has made several attempts to get its students exemption from the entrance exam in vain.

In February 2017, soon after NEET was made mandatory across the country, the AIADMK government headed by Edappadi K Palaniswami passed a Bill to abolish the exam and sent it for presidential assent. President Ram Nath Kovind, however, refused to entertain it. 

In August 2019, the AIADMK government sent a draft ordinance to the central government for clearance, exempting the State from NEET after the suicide of a high-scoring medical aspirant Anitha and several other aspirants stirred the State. 

But the centre refused to budge as a constitutional challenge had been pending before the Supreme Court of India. Subsequently, the same year, the Supreme Court of India ordered the TN government to conduct medical admissions purely based on NEET marks bringing that attempt to a close.

The DMK, which came to power in 2021 had promised the State exemption from NEET in its poll manifesto and argued that the AIADMK government’s Bill wasn’t strong enough and lacked factual details, formed a committee under Justice AK Rajan in June 2021 to study the impact of NEET on medical admissions in TN. 

After a detailed study, the committee concluded that ‘if NEET continues in TN, the health care system of TN would be badly affected’ while pointing out several alleged legal anomalies in the National Medical Act and how NEET was against federalism and would encroach into State rights in higher education.

Armed with the new report, the DMK government under MK Stalin passed a fresh Bill seeking TN students’ exemption from NEET in September 2021 and sent it to Governor RN Ravi, which was returned to the State legislature a few weeks ago.

While the Governor no longer has the luxury to return the Bill to the State a second time, legal experts have also concurred that State government’s move is unlikely to yield any tangible gains as the Bill would now be forwarded to the President of India for his assent and could lie there forever along with a few other Bills from the State, most recently the Bill passed by TN government regarding release of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, which has been with the President since January 2021.

Under these circumstances, only a solid legal challenge at the Supreme Court of India appears to be a more time-bound and practical approach to the problem. However, even a legal battle might not be a cakewalk as highlighted by constitutional experts and the fate of similar petitions at the apex court. 

Five years have already passed since NEET became a reality in the State. Keeping young medical aspirants still guessing on whether the examination would be abolished or not could only be detrimental to determined efforts by students. The State government owes it to the student community to provide some clarity on its approach and must come out with a fool-proof and time-bound legal strategy to provide an exemption for TN from NEET.