The State government on Friday informed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that until a decision is taken by the Governor on the assent to the Bill on implementing 7.5 % horizontal reservation for government school students who have cleared the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in medical admissions, the prospectus for admissions will not be issued.
Advocate General Vijay Narayan informed a Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi that no decision was taken by the Governor on the assent, and till then the prospectus/admission notice will not be issued for medical admissions.
During the course of the hearing, Justice N. Kirubakaran broke down in tears and observed that a decision has to be taken at the earliest to safeguard the interest of government school students.
The judges pointed out that as per data available, in the last three years only three, five and six students from government schools got admission in medical colleges. Therefore, a decision had to be taken with respect to the implementation of the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Courses in Medicine, Dentistry, Indian Medicine and Homeopathy on Preferential Basis to Students of Government Schools Bill, 2020, the judges said.
Earlier, the court had observed that the Bill was passed by the Legislative Assembly unanimously on September 15 and sent to the Governor for his assent on the very same day. However, it had been pending for one month without any decision being taken on it.
If no decision was taken with regard to reservation for government school students, definitely, fewer students would get admission and the interests of the government school students would be affected, the judges said.
The court was hearing a batch of public interest litigation petitions which sought a direction to the State to implement horizontal reservation for government school students as recommended by the commission headed by retired High Court Judge P. Kalaiyarasan.
