An all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday unanimously decided to hold a special session of the Legislative Assembly next week and resend to Governor RN Ravi the legislation seeking exemption for the State from National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate Medical Courses.
The Governor had sent back the Bill to the Government early this week asking the House to reconsider the Bill stating that the legislation was against the interests of the students specially the rural and economically poor students of the State.
Saturday’s meeting was attended by the DMK and its allies including the Congress, CPI(M), CPI, VCK, and PMK, a potential ally. The AIADMK, the BJP and other constituents of the NDA in Tamil Nadu stayed away from the meeting though the principal opposition party has expressed its support to the DMK in its endeavour to get the NEET scrapped.
Chief Minister Stalin had made the scrapping of the NEET a prestige issue for the government of Tamil Nadu citing the suicides by students who failed to get into the qualifying grades in the Test.
Tamil Nadu is likely to see a political battle involving the Governor and the Government over the DMK’s demand to exempt the State from the purview of the NEET. According to Article 200 of the Constitution of India, when a Bill passed by the Legislature is sent to the assent of the Governor and if the latter returns the Bill back to the Government for reconsideration, the House (Legislature) has to reconsider it accordingly and if the Bill is passed again by the House with or without amendment and presented to the Governor for assent, the Governor shall not withhold assent.
If the Bill is not a Money Bill, the President may direct the Governor to return the Bill to the House together with such a message as it mentioned in the first proviso to article 200 and when the Bill is so returned, the House shall reconsider it accordingly within a period of six months from the date of receipt of such message and if it is again passed by the House with or without amendment, it shall again be presented to the President for his consideration.
“There is no provision which says that the Governor should give his assent to the Bill if the House sends the same back to him without any amendment. There is a Constitution proviso which stipulates that the President is bound to give his assent to a Bill sent back by the Parliament which has been returned to the Union Government by the President. But there is no compulsion on the part of the Governor to give his assent to the Bill which has been sent back by the Legislative Assembly,” said S Jayashankar, constitutional lawyer.