CHENNAI: The Union government has informed the Madras high court that after the President of India had withheld his assent for the Tamil Nadu Admission to MBBS and BDS courses Bill, 2017 and the Tamil Nadu Admission to Post Graduate Courses in Medicine and Dentistry Bill, 2017, both the Bills were returned to the Government of Tamil Nadu on September 22, 2017 and the state government also acknowledged the receipt of the same by a letter dated October 25, 2017 and requested the reasons for withholding President’s assent for the two Bills.
Rajiv Gauba, Secretary, Union Ministry of Home Affairs stated this in his affidavit filed on behalf of the Union government in response to a batch of petitions from I.P.Kanagasundaram, P.N.Gajendra Babu, Tamil Nadu Students Parents Welfare Association and U.Mustafa, which sought a direction to the Union government to complete the procedures, for obtaining the Presidential assent, for the Tamil Nadu Admission to MBBS and BDS courses Bill, 2017 and the Tamil Nadu Admission to Post Graduate Courses in Medicine and Dentistry Bill, 2017.
A division bench comprising Justices S.Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad before whom the affidavit was filed, posted to August 13, further hearing of the case.
In his affidavit, Rajiv Gauba submitted that the two Bills were received from the Government of Tamil Nadu by the Ministry of Home Affairs on February 20, 2017. Both the Bills were circulated to the Central Ministries on the date of receipt itself. Both the Bills along with the reports/papers received from the various ministries/departments and the Government of Tamil Nadu were placed for consideration of the President of India in the form of summary signed by the Union Home Minister on September 11, 2017. The President has withheld his assent for the two Bills. Both the Bills were accordingly returned to the Government of Tamil Nadu vide this ministry’s letter dated September 22, 2017 and the state government has acknowledged the receipt of the same vide letter dated October 25, 2017, he added.
In their petitions, the petitioners submitted that the central government in view of centralization of all the powers had introduced National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS/BDS and PG courses. Protesting the same, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu had on July 16, 2016 made a request to the Union of India to grant exemption from the NEET. However, the Union government refused to accept the request and proceeded to conduct NEET on May 7, 2017. Aggrieved, the Tamil Nadu government passed two bills and sent them to the Union government for getting presidential assent. However, the Union government has not taken any steps. Therefore, they filed the present petitions, they added.
