The Madras High court on Monday quashed the appeal made by the Tamil Nadu government on 85 percent reservation in medical admission for state board students. This move came as a massive relief for the CBSE students in the state.
The Tamil Nadu government had been exploiting all its avenues to do away with NEET for its students. A division bench of justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and M Dhandapani passed the order stating that the appeal lacked merit, according to a Times of India report.
A single bench of the court, on July 14, had reportedly quashed the government order by calling it a "step-motherly or discriminatory move".
Contending this, the Tamil Nadu government had filed an appeal saying that it was duty bound to make provisions in an attempt to protect the interest of a vast majority of the students who belonged to the state board and did not have access to the CBSE pattern of education.
The state government that supported the students on this pointed out that they cannot hold the students responsible for the sudden change in the pattern of admission which is based on an entirely different syllabus and methodology.
The counsels from CBSE students argued that the reservations were introduced to serve the vested interests of urban private state board institutions.
'Final effort'
The Tamil Nadu government on Monday made its 'final effort' seeking an exemption for the state students from the nation-wide common entrance exam, after Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabhaskar accompanied by health secretary J Radhakrishnan took the issue up for discussion with union minister J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh, according to reports.
An official release recalled a series of meetings by Tamil Nadu ministers with Prime Minister Modi on the issue a few days ago. Following these, as a final effort, Vijaybhaskar met Nadda and Singh to put pressure on them for exempting Tamil Nadu from NEET, according to report.