NEET: Sons of soil must obey law of land

Under Article 142 of the Constitution, every civil authority should aid implementing any Supreme Court order. When SC  passed orders on NEET in 2016, the state government took the stand that it was too short a notice to implement it as it would affect thousands of students. 

It approached the Centre for reprieve and  Parliament passed a law introducing Section 10 D under the IMC Act. With this, TN was given a one-year exemption. NEET is mandatory. 

Earlier, it was only a regulation made by IMC. Now, there is  parliamentary law, making it mandatory. Once there is a law, all states should follow it. Another aspect to this is contempt of court. Instead of obeying the law, the state government had taken one year’s exemption, for which the President has not given his consent. 

However, through a GO, TN  allotted 15 per cent seats to students from CBSE stream and 85 per cent to those from the state board. Now, this GO was struck down by the MHC and the SC dismissed an appeal. 

Instead of promulgating NEET, TN tried other methods to get around the order. The SC is obviously unhappy. However, its directive to proceed with the admission was complied with and the admission was  over. Now, groups in the state are continuously protesting against NEET. 

There were  many other incidents and now the protest is not viewed as disobedience, but as chaos. The SC’s view is that this is a clear case of contempt, and has instructed that action be taken against protesters. 

As to the question of whether the protests are contempt of court or not, the fact is any action against a SC  verdict is indeed contempt of court. If the ministers in TN are issuing statements saying, “We are not for NEET,” the fact is, it is not their choice. 

They may be compelled to take such a stance due to their ideological slant but they cannot disobey the SC. As for the media’s posturing on what is permitted after a verdict, criticism of NEET is allowed  but even ordinary people cannot go on and on. They cannot cross civil lines of protest. Three things will happen now. 

First, TN  will take action against protesters. The recognised political parties will go silent on this. The fringe parties might make a noise and the state government will have to take action against them.

However, with the deadline for local body elections nearing (it should be held by November 17), all action might shift to politics once again.