Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution opposing NEET and calling for enabling admission to medical courses in the State on the basis of the marks obtained in the Class 12 Board examinations.
Citing the repeated irregularities in conducting the NEET, the resolution said, the Government of India should make the necessary amendments in the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 (Central Act 30 of 2019), the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 (Central Act 14 of 2020), the National Commission for Homoeopathy Act, 2020 (Central Act 15 of 2020) and other relevant Central enactments, “so that the uniform National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to the undergraduate medical education is given up at the national level.”
The resolution, moved by Health Minister K G Arunraj, pointed out the Tamil Nadu Government has consistently emphasised that the NEET is against social justice and equality, and against the rights of the States insofar as medical education is concerned. “It gravely undermines the medical education opportunities of rural and socio-economically disadvantaged students, including students whose medium of instruction is Tamil. NEET has led to the proliferation of coaching centres charging exorbitant fees. It has diverted the focus of students from the school curriculum to NEET-oriented coaching alone. A single day’s test, rather than twelve years of school education, now determines the course of a student's higher education,” it argued.
Even though the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously passed the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021 to exempt the State from the NEET, assent to the said Bill has been withheld by the President of India.
“The repeated question paper leakages and irregularities in conducting the NEET, which culminated in the cancellation of the NEET (UG) 2026 and the conduct of a re-examination, has caused untold mental agony to lakhs of students, even leading to the tragic loss of young lives, and the examination system has forfeited the trust of the students of this country. NEET should, therefore, be abolished,” the resolution said.
