"Politically motivated:" DMK moves Madras High Court opposing BJP leader's PIL against Tamil Nadu Committee to study impact of NEET

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party has moved an impleadment plea in the Madras High Court to oppose the petition moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State General Secretary against the Tamil Nadu's decision to constitute a Committee to study the impact of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on socially backward students. .Filed through its organising secretary, RS Bharathi, the DMK's plea contended that the writ petition moved by BJP's K Nagarajan is politically motivated, based on conjectures and an attempt to prevent the restoration of social justice in education. .It was contended further that the writ petition against the constitution of a fact finding body, such as the committee examining the impact of NEET, is not maintainable since the committee's constitution does not affect the rights of any person. ."The impugned Committee is merely a fact finding body, to study the impact of NEET on the students in Tamil Nadu. This does not affect the rights of any person and therefore does not give rise to any cause of action to file a Writ Petition. It is well settled that it is within the executive power of the State Government under Article 162 to appoint such fact finding body by way of an executive order," the DMK submitted..DMK argued that the BJP General Secretary is "neither a soothsayer nor an astrologer to predict" what the Committee may report and that it is trite in law that the Court will not burden itself with purely academic issues. Once the Committee submits a report, the State will have to study a report and then decide the future course of action, the plea said. .It was added that even if the State were to opt to enact a law pursuant to the Committee's report to do away with NEET, such a law would have to follow the procedure under Article 254 of the Constitution of India (whereby State laws repugnant to the Central government's laws on concurrent subjects can be validated if assented to by the President).."Therefore, it is not as if the Union Government will be kept out of the matter as such a law will require the assent of the Hon’ble President of India. This point alone highlights how the Writ Petitioner/ 1st Respondent has, in his haste to file a petition, filed a totally premature and misconceived Writ Petition," the DMK highlighted. .Among other submissions, the DMK also argued that by introducing NEET-related regulations, the Union government could not have taken away the State's powers with respect to regulating educational admissions in the exercise of its legislative powers under entry 25 of List III/ the concurrent list (education)..DMK MLAs and MPs have received hundreds of representations about NEET and its impact on socially and economically backward persons, the application further contended..The experience of the past four years with NEET has shown that the medical entrance exam has "shattered the hopes and dreams of Tamil Nadu students aspiring for admission to medical and dental courses, particularly, students from the socially and economically backward classes," the party's plea stated. .Under the guise of NEET coaching, coaching centres are also minting money from students and the exam has virtually mandated that students switch over to CBSE schools from State Board schools, making State Board education meaningless for students who wish to pursue medicine and dental courses, it is added.."Therefore, to better understand the grievances of the people, and to wipe the tears of the students from such underprivileged class of society, our Hon’ble Chief Minister has constituted a fact finding Committee to recommend suitable measures to the government," the DMK said in its plea. .It requires a degree of extraordinary perversion to oppose such constitution of a high level committee to study the impact of NEET, the DMK contended. "Our ideal of securing social justice in education may be something that is antithetical to the ideals of the Writ Petitioner/ 1st Respondent," the plea said. .The impleadment plea has been filed through M/s P Wilson Associates..The case is expected to be taken up by a Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Monday. The Court had issued notice in Nagarajan's petition on last week (K Nagarajan v. Union of India and ors). ."You obtain leave of Supreme Court, else this should stop:" Madras High Court on Tamil Nadu decision to assess NEET impact on socially deprived.During the first hearing, the Bench had also expressed its doubts as to whether the nine-member Committee headed by former Justice Justice AK Rajan could have been constituted without the Supreme Court's permission, since the top Court had earlier ruled that NEET should be followed by all States, including Tamil Nadu.