Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday said the State government would take a decision on whether another resolution on an exemption from NEET for Tamil Nadu could be adopted in the Assembly or a review petition filed in the Supreme Court, only after consulting legal experts.

The CM said this while responding to Leader of Opposition and DMK president MK Stalin, who wanted the House to adopt a resolution condemning the Centre for rejecting the two Bills unanimously adopted by the House in February 2017.  At least, a resolution renewing the demand for exemption should be adopted, Stalin added.

Deputy CM O Panneerselvam said it would not be proper to adopt a resolution condemning the Centre. Regarding a review petition in the SC,  legal experts have to be consulted, he added. Taking a dig at the Congress MLAs, he said, “At least this time, it would be nice if the Congress does not argue against Tamil Nadu’s petition before the court”. He was obliquely referring to how Nalini Chidambaram, wife of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, argued in favour of NEET a few years ago.

Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam said that till date, there had been no communication from the Centre to the State that the two Bills had been rejected by the President.  “Instead, we were told that the Bills were withheld. The Tamil Nadu government is yet to know on what grounds these Bills have been withheld. After setting right the lacunae, we have the right to re-send the Bills to the Centre for the President’s assent,” he added.

Raising the issue during zero hour, Stalin deplored that the Centre, which had put in cold storage the two Bills for the past 27 months, informed the Madras High Court all of a sudden a few day ago, that the President had refused assent to the Bills. He also recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opposed NEET when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar presented a detailed account of how the issue originated and how the AIADMK government had consistently opposed NEET.