Madras High Court dismisses PIL against committee to study NEET impact

Chennai: The Madras High Court has dismissed a Public Interest Litigation filed by BJP's Tamil Nadu General Secretary, K. Nagarajan, against setting up of the Justice A.K. Rajan Committee to study the impact of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) on students, especially from the socially and economically backward classes.

The committee was constituted by the DMK government on June 10. The DMK had, in its election manifesto, opposed the NEET and had promised that it would do away with the exam which was causing great stress to the people from economically and socially deprived backgrounds. This was challenged by the BJP's Nagarajan.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, while dismissing the PIL, said that the constitution of such a committee cannot be seen as contrary to the orders of the Supreme Court or the powers of the Union government.

"There is nothing to stop an elected government from studying the impact of NEET," it held.

Nagarajan had, in his plea, stated that the constitution of such a committee was a "futile exercise" as the study of such a committee would not have any impact on the conduct of the NEET examination since the Supreme Court has already passed an order on the competitive examination earlier.

He had also contended that the NEET was introduced after several studies and legal pronouncements and said that relying upon plus two marks for medical admissions would lead to the selection of "average minds and below average students".

The BJP leader also claimed that the constitution of the committee was far beyond the competence of the state and had termed it as a "reckless act".