Tamil Nadu Govt. Challenges Constitutional Validity of NEET UG Exam in Supreme Court

Tamil Nadu Govt. Challenges Constitutional Validity of NEET UG Exam in Supreme Court

The Tamil Nadu Government challenges the core constitutional validity of the NEET UG exam in the Supreme Court of India. The Appellant, Tamil Nadu Government, claims that the NEET UG as the common entrance exam for admissions to all medical courses violates the principle of federalism, which is a basic part of the Indian Constitution. It also claims that NEET takes away the decision-making power over education from the states. The claim was filed under the grounds that as per the NEET UG Syllabus, the exam will be based on the Class 12 CBSE or NCERT syllabus, which is not available for students from a rural background or state-board students. Also, students from rural backgrounds are unable to pay for coaching or access to such privileges, which directly imposes inequality.

The petition was filed under Article 131 of the Constitution of India, where the Tamil Nadu government asked the court to declare that Section 14 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, which establishes a common test for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical programmes, "ultra vires" the Constitution on a number of grounds. This provision allows the Supreme Court to decide disputes between the Centre and the state/s.

Further, the Tamil Nadu government states that the structure of the NEET is violative in nature as it takes power from the states to conduct admissions to government colleges. The government has witnessed a number of protests by the students regarding the same and wishes to take a stand with the students for their betterment.

Also, the government claims that only in 2010 the Medical Council of India (now replaced by the National Medical Commission) was introduced along with NEET as the common entrance test for admissions to all medical colleges across the nation. It also incorporated admissions for Dental, Homeopathy, and Indian medicine. Previously, the State of Tamil Nadu conducted its own Common Entrance Test (CET) based on the state board Class 12 syllabus which was convenient for all, and also provided equal opportunities for all the students.

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