Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit had finally given his nod to the government's 7.5% NEET quota bill, nearly forty days after the bill was unanimously passed in the state legislative assembly. The Governor has provided his consent to the bill on Friday, which has come a day after the state government had passed the government order towards the bill through its executive detour by bypassing the Governor. 

According to the communique released by the Raj Bhavan concerning the Governor's consent to the bill, "Tamil Nadu Governor has given assent to the bill titled 'Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Courses in Medicine, Dentistry, Indian Medicine, and Homeopathy on preferential basis to the students of Government Schools Bill 2020'. The Governor sought the legal opinion of the Solicitor General of India through a letter dated September 26 and the opinion was received on October 29".

The Governor had decided to provide his approval as he had received the legal opinion from the Solicitor General (SG). According to reports, SG Mehta had said that the bill is in consonance with the Indian Constitution and disclosed his legal opinion to the Governor in consenting the bill, which would be guaranteeing the government school students, who cleared the NEET, to secure the medical admissions. 

The Tamil Nadu assembly had passed the bill on September 15 and dispatched it to the Governor for swift consent. However, the Governor had opted to go at a slow pace despite the NEET results were declared. The bill was lying before the Governor's desk for over a month and the absence of the swift consent had sparked fierce protests against him and he was centered with a staunch demand from the opposition parties and students to give the approval. 

Earlier, the state opposition party DMK, its allied parties, and students' forums had staged protests in front of the Raj Bhavan in Chennai in urging the Governor to give his consent to the bill. DMK President Stalin had addressed to the Governor and demanded him to give his approval for which the Governor had last week said that he needs at least three to four weeks to arrive at a final decision. 

As the Governor hadn't exercised timely action and as the demands have sharply been growing in the state, the state government has, on Thursday, surpassed the Governor under the executive route and passed the Government Order (G.O) for the reservation bill with the view of facilitating admissions into medical colleges for the current academic year 2020-21. 

The bill will allow a 7.5% horizontal reservation for government school students who have cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions into medical courses. According to reports, the state government has obtained legal advice from the counsels and decided to go through the executive detour, instead of the legislative route with having no clarity on when the Governor would give his consent. 

The government said that as the NEET-UG results were announced and the admission process for medical studies had already begun, there is an urgency to decide on this issue and it has used the executive power and the government has taken the policy decision and issued orders. According to reports, the 7.5% NEET reservation bill is applicable to the state quota seats in all Government Medical and Dental colleges and all courses for which NEET has been prescribed as eligibility criteria and to the seats allotted by the state government in the self-financing medical and dental colleges, minority and non-minority, and under all disciplines.