The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by BJP general secretary Karu Nagarajan challenging the constitution of a committee headed by Justice (retired) A K Rajan by the Tamil Nadu government to study the impact of NEET on students from economically underprivileged sections.
Nagarajan had filed the PIL last week asking the court to quash the notification issued by the state government on the constitution of the committee.
After taking over, Chief Minister M K Stalin, whose party DMK has promised to do away with NEET for admission into medical college, formed a panel under the chairmanship of Justice Rajan to study the impact of the exam which has claimed the lives of 13 students.
In his petition, Nagarajan had claimed that the committee was “'unconstitutional, illegal, unfair” and without legal justification and contended that it amounted to seeking the opinion of the public about the judgment of the Supreme Court.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy rejected Nagarajan’s plea maintaining that mere constitution of a panel by the state government cannot be considered as an act of defiance to any order passed by the Supreme Court.
Reacting to the judgement, Stalin said the judgement has exposed the “double standards” of the AIADMK and BJP. Meanwhile, the Justice Rajan Committee will submit its report to Stalin on Wednesday.
(Published 13 July 2021, 17:37 IST)
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