Tamil Nadu hits out at BJP for opposing NEET committee
CHENNAI: BJP's challenge against the constitution of the NEET committee by the Tamil Nadu government is nothing but an attempt to throttle the spirit of democracy, the state has said.
The contention that a sovereign state cannot even attempt to study the consequences of an existing law and to attempt to examine issues raised by students from rural areas and from poor socioeconomic background is constitutionally incorrect, it added.
The state made the submissions in its counter affidavit opposing the PIL moved by BJP state secretary K Nagarajan seeking to quash an order issued by the Tamil Nadu government on June 10, constituting a committee headed by Justice A K Rajan to study the impact of NEET.
According to the petitioner, any recommendation made by the committee cannot be implemented in view of the orders passed by the apex court on NEET as it would be violative of the judgement.
Denying the allegation, the counter filed by advocate-general R Shunmugasundaram contended that the petitioner has presumed the outcome of the report and the action government will take on the report, which is entirely hypothetical and is nothing but conjecture.
“The committee only gives a platform to the stakeholders to state their concerns, which will be in turn submitted to the government as a report,” the state said.
Being a welfare state, the grievances of the students, parents and stakeholders on the impact of NEET have to be heard, which is one of the sovereign functions of the government, it added.
“Hearing the public in order to address the grievances is the constitutional power and mandate of a welfare state and such action of constituting a committee to hear the people is not justiciable as it would amount to transgressing into the executive and legislative domain of the state,” the state asserted.
Moreover, the issue in the present plea is only the constitution of the committee and not the legislative power of the state legislature to enact laws on subjects in concurrent list of the Constitution. The government will have to study the report and then only decide the further course of action, the counter said.
The plea is scheduled to be taken up for hearing on Monday.
Meanwhile, a slew of political parties and organisations in the state have moved the high court seeking to implead them in the PIL opposing the challenge. The parties include DMK, MDMK, CPM, and Dravidar Kazhagam.