Tamil Nadu Continues Opposition to NEET Examination

In 2017, the Tamil Nadu Government had made various efforts to remove the eligibility requirement to appear for NEET examinations. At the time, the state government had pointed out the pros and cons of using NEET as a basis for admissions to the medical courses in India. The Tamil Nadu Government has again raised the issue to the Supreme Court stating that the NEET examination is discriminatory in nature against the aspirants who are financially poor and belong from rural India. The State Government had moved to the Supreme Court, two days prior to the closing date of NEET 2020 application submissions, i.e. 6th Jan 2020.

As per the NEET issue that had been raised in 2017, the DMK Government had accused the Centre of implementing the NEET policies for medical admissions in the state. However, the cries had fallen on deaf ears, as NEET had become a mandatory examination, required for admission to various medical courses.

History of Opposition to NEET

In 2013, the Supreme Court had deemed the medical entrance exam test as illegal and unconstitutional. However, the bench seated at the Supreme Court in 2016, brought the examination back to power, allowing both the Central Government and the Medical Council of India to implement the entrance exam for the admission process. However, upon requests from the various states like Tamil Nadu, for an entire year, government medical colleges were exempted from the examination.

At the time, Madras High Court had sided with the TN State Government, pointing out the discriminatory regulations of NEET examinations. Last year, the Madras High Court confirmed its position to oppose the implementation of NEET, siding with its previous decision.

Let’s understand why the Tamil Nadu stands against NEET examination. When the proposal for the NEET examination had been passed, students from the state were not able to crack the examination. The biggest reason for this was that the NEET examination had been purely constructed based on the CBSE syllabus. In Tamil Nadu, most of the students cleared their class 12 board examination from the Tamil Nadu Board of education, the syllabus of which was inherently different from the CBSE syllabus. This had been considered by the State Government as discriminatory, as the students were not taught as per CBSE syllabus, thus causing the students to be unable to crack the examinations and shattering their MBBS dreams.

In 2017, 85% of the seats had been allocated to the Tamil Nadu Education Board students, which meant that only those students who had completed their education from the state board were eligible for MBBS seats under State Quota, while the rest 15% was allocated to other boards, including CBSE. This NEET reservation policy, implemented by the State Government had been challenged by CBSE students.

What the Current Opposition to the NEET Exam States

However, the same argument has not been put forward by the state this time. Both the State Government and the High Court has stated that the NEET is discriminatory against the poor and the rural students of the state. They claim that only students who spend lakhs of money on coaching centres are able to crack the examination while the poor and the rural medical aspirants are left in a lurch.

The Tamil Nadu Government has filed a petition at the Supreme Court, challenging Section 10D of the Indian Medical Council Act, under which NEET examination is held across India, without exemption.

Also Read:Check out the NEET Tie-Breaker Policy

Among the further developments in the issue was when the Lok Sabha asked if any provisions are made for UTs and States to exempt them from NEET examinations, or if there were any provisions to exempt Tamil Nadu along, for the sake of the students. However, statements from the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan further cited Section 1D under the Indian Medical Council Act 1956, which prohibit any kind of exemptions to the states from conducting the entrance exam.

Also Read:Here’s What You Should Know About the NEET Reservation Policy

The State Government has for a long time opposed the examination, with so many developments occurring in the situation. However, the chances of witnessing the scrapping of a National-level entrance examination for medical admissions in colleges across India are slim to none. When NEET examination had been introduced, it had been conducted by CBSE, but now the reigns of conducting the examinations along with other national-level entrance exams are being transferred to the National Testing Agency.