Tamil Nadu Governor returns Bill against NEET

Detailed reasons sent to Assembly Speaker: Raj Bhavan

Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi. File

Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi has returned to the Assembly Speaker a Bill seeking to dispense with NEET-based admissions for undergraduate medical degree courses, the Raj Bhavan said on Thursday.

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The Bill adopted by the Assembly in September sought to admit students to UG medical degree programmes on the basis of Plus Two scores. After a detailed study of the Bill that sought an exemption for the State from NEET and the report of the high-level committee constituted by the State government in this regard, the Governor was “of the opinion that the Bill is against interests of the students specially the rural and economically poor students of the State,” a one-page press release from the Raj Bhavan said.

Hence, the Governor has returned the Bill to the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on February 1, 2022, giving “detailed reasons, for its re-consideration by the House,” it said. The release said the Supreme Court in

Christian Medical College, Vellore Association Vs. Union of India (2020) also has comprehensively examined the issue specially from the social justice perspective and upheld NEET as it prevents economic exploitation of poor students and was in furtherance of social justice.

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Within hours of the Raj Bhawan release, the Tamil Nadu government said it would take steps to adopt the same Bill in the Assembly again. To discuss the steps to be taken in this regard, the government also convened an all-party meeting in the Secretariat on Friday.