New Delhi: Madras High Court upheld the Tamil Nadu Government's order to provide a 7.5% horizontal reservation to government school students who have cleared their National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET). 

Tamil Nadu NEET 2022: Madras HC Upholds 7.5% Quota for Govt School Students

As per the Madras Court, the state government can review reservations for Tamil Nadu NEET Counselling every five years. The hearing was held before the bench of Madras HC Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy.

"We direct the state government to review the same in a period of five years as recommended by the commission and during the intervening period steps may be taken to improve the standard of education in government schools so that the reservation may not be further extended beyond five years,” the court said.

During the hearing, the government counsel stated that reservations for MBBS admission should be provided to government school students as they can not afford to go to entrance exam preparation centres. 

Tamil Nadu Government added that NEET 2022 reservation for the state is an important step toward bridging the rural-urban and rich-poor gap in the MBBS field. The state government has the power to give such preferences once the reservation is approved by the Supreme Court, it added. 

Making a note of the argument, the Madras High Court bench held the request valid. However, in the next hearing, the bench stated that there are no such reservation criteria valid in the constitution. 

Clarifying the statement, the bench further added that the constitution should be rewritten in order to provide equal opportunities to students of all institutions. 

As per the petitioners, the general category students have only about 31% of medical seats available as of now, while the remaining 69% of seats are reserved for students of various categories. Now, which is further pushed by the 7.5% quota, they further added. 

Earlier, in 2020, the AIADMK government passed the order to implement the 7.5% reservation criteria for government school students who cleared the NEET for MBBS admission seats. The decision was further approved by the Tamil Nadu Government. 

In order to implement the reservation, the state government was awaiting the approval of Governor Banwarilal Purohit for the 7.5% NEET reservation bill. 

In September 2020, the Tamil Nadu Government approved a bill in the state assembly to offer horizontal reservation to students in various undergraduate courses in medicine, dentistry, and AYUSH medicines.

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