The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court sought a response from the Tamil Nadu government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought direction to forbear the government and the ruling DMK party from making false promises to the public about scrapping NEET till a conclusive decision is taken on it.
The litigant, KS Vetrivel, who hails from Ramanathapuram district, submitted that during the state elections the DMK had promised it will scrap NEET if it comes to power. Vetrivel highlighted that the government made the students of the state appear for the exam this year. He said in the PIL that the State Health Minister in June announced that though the DMK government is working towards getting an exemption from NEET, students need to take the exam this year.
"The announcement came as a rude shock to medical aspirants and they did not have enough time to prepare for the test leading to mental stress and even suicide among the aspirants," Vetrivel said. He blamed the DMK government for the state the students are in and said that the 'reckless' and 'non-implementable' promises made by the party for political mileage have caused the students to suffer. He further requested the court to restrain the government and the DMK party members from making any more promises to the public with regard to NEET until a conclusive and viable solution is identified on the issue.
Vetrivel also sought from the court the direction for the government to pay Rs 1 crore compensation to medical aspirants who died by suicide and Rs 5 lakh to those who suffered mental health issues due to NEET-phobia. A Bench comprising Justices M Duraiswamy and K Murali Shankar, who heard the plea, issued a notice to the state government and the DMK and directed them to file a counter-affidavit. The next hearing would be on November 22.
