TIRUNELVELI: Speaker M Appavu on Monday said the Union government has consistently failed to respect Supreme Court verdicts, while reacting to speculation that the Centre may go on appeal against the recent apex court verdict on governor’s role in assent to bills passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
Addressing reporters after paying homage to B R Ambedkar, Appavu said he learnt through media reports that the Centre was likely to move the SC challenging the verdict.
“The Centre has never shown respect to SC’s rulings. When the court directed the formation of a tribunal for regulating the sharing of Cauvery water, the centre failed to comply and instead constituted a commission. To this day, the authority to regulate water-sharing lies with Karnataka.”
The Speaker further said the Union government had introduced a bill in Parliament to exclude the Chief Justice of India from the committee selecting the Election Commissioners only because the Supreme Court pointed out the flaws in the selection of a commissioner.
He further pointed out that premier institutions such as JIPMER, AIIMS, and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology do not admit students to their postgraduate programmes through NEET-PG. “However, Tamil Nadu is being compelled to adopt NEET-UG. This is discriminatory. The State will secure exemption from NEET,” he asserted.
On a question about the remarks made by forest minister K Ponmudy, he said the DMK has taken action against him, adding that no one, including the DMK president, justified the remarks.