The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government and administration to ensure that law and order situation prevails in the light of the tense atmosphere in the State over the NEET protests.
“As an interim measure, it is directed that it shall be the obligation of the Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, and the Principal Secretary, Ministry of Home, Government of Tamil Nadu, to ensure that law and order is maintained throughout the State in the wake of the present situation in respect of the NEET examination,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra directed in its order.
The court further directed that the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary “shall see to it that anyone involved in any kind of ‘bandh’ or activity that disrupts the normal life and detrimentally affects law and order in the State of Tamil Nadu, shall be booked under the appropriate law”.
The court clearly distinguished between the right to peaceful dissent and creation of violence in the name of protest. “We may clearly state here that a peaceful protest or criticism or dissent is different than creation of a law and order situation. Every citizen of this country has a fundamental right to peacefully protest and demonstrate, but not to cause a situation that results in violence and paralyses the law and order situation,” the Supreme Court held.
During the hearing, the court observed that NEET was upheld as the sole basis for admission to MBBS and BDS courses. It was the State's liability to protect the public from violence in the name of protests in the State.
The court ordered the State Advocate-General to appear before it on September 18 and explain the apparent failure of law and order authorities to control the protests against NEET following the suicide of a 17-year-old State Board student, S. Anitha , who had approached the Supreme Court against admission via NEET in the State.
Presently, the court refused to pass any orders on a prayer to institute a probe — led by a retired Madras HC judge — into her death.
The petition, filed by Supreme Court lawyer G.S. Mani, had asked the court to intervene and direct the State government to maintain the law and order situation. The death had led to widespread protests, and roadblocks by students all over the State. “The agitations and roadblocks create a law and order situation which is very dangerous. The State authority unable to keep the situation under control,” the petition said. The petition further accused political parties of instigating students to violence. It asked the court to “not permit political parties and the public to conduct illegal strike/boycott/human chain/road blocking/rail roko or any other mode of strike against NEET”. The petition said, the State authorities should come to the aid of State Board students by upgrading the syllabus to set it on a par with the CBSE. This would help the State Board students to compete in NEET with their CBSE counterparts on equal terms.
Anitha, who had scored 1,176 out of 1,200 marks in her Class XII State Board examinations was unable to join the MBBS course due to poor scores in NEET. Anitha, the daughter of a daily-wage labourer hailing from Kuzhumur village near Sendurai in Tamil Nadu, had impleaded herself as one of the respondents in a Supreme Court case challenging NEET. The court had refused to give Tamil Nadu any exemption from NEET and had directed the authorities to complete counselling by September 7. Anitha's death had triggered strong reactions from political parties and social activists who had been seeking exemption for the State from NEET.
