Days after Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi has returned the anti-NEET Bill passed by the assembly last year by citing that the Bill is against the interests of the students, the Tamil Nadu Assembly has on Tuesday - February 8, has re-adopted the Bill and send it to the Governor. With the support of 230 MLAs, the assembly has passed the legislation while the four BJP MLAs had skipped voting to display their dissent against the Bill. 

By passing the Bill for the second time, the Tamil Nadu Assembly has created a history as for the first time in its 70-year history, the assembly has unanimously re-adopted the same draft of a bill without amendments. Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian has tabled the Bill in the assembly on Tuesday and it was later supported by the opposition including the ADMK. However, BJP had staged the walkout from the assembly.  

Addressing one of the historical assembly sessions, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has said that the assembly had sent the Bill to the Governor and he should have accepted it and sent it to the President. He said, "He did not decide anything and kept it in his possession for 142 days and after repeated insistence, it has come back to us again." He further said, "NEET didn't fall from the sky. It was introduced to stop many poor students from getting educated." 

He said, "NEET was beneficial only to the private coaching centres and the anti-NEET Bill was passed by the assembly for the benefit of those poor students who cannot afford such training." With the Bill has been passed for the second time, the ball is on the President's court as the Tamil Nadu Governor cannot reject it for the second time. The Governor has to give his consent and send it to the President. 

Earlier, the DMK and the leaders of several political parties, apart from ADMK and BJP, had slammed the Governor for returning the Bill. On February 3, Raj Bhavan, the Governor's Office, has said that after a detailed study, the Governor has found that the bill is against the interests of the students, especially rural and economically poor students of the state.

The statement from the Raj Bhavan said, "The Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu, after a detailed study of the L.A. (Legislative Assembly) Bill No. 43 of 2021 for admission to undergraduate medical courses seeking exemption from NEET, and the report of the high-level committee constituted by the state government in this regard which is the basis for the bill and also examining the pre-NEET status of social justice in medical admission especially for students coming from socially and economically poor background, is of the opinion that the Bill is against interests of the students especially the rural and economically poor students of the state." 

The statement further read, "Hence, the Hon'ble Governor has returned the Bill to the Hon'ble Speaker, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on February 01, 2022, giving detailed reasons, for its reconsideration by the House. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in Christian Medical College, Vellore Association Vs. Union of India (2020) also has comprehensively examined the issue especially from the Social Justice perspective and upheld NEET as it prevents economic exploitation of poor students and is in furtherance of social justice."