The State Platform for Common School System – Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) has appealed to President Droupadi Murmu to reconsider the decision to withhold assent to the anti-NEET Bill that was passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

The Bill proposes that admissions to undergraduate medical courses in government and private colleges be based on the marks scored in the Higher Secondary Board Examination.

In an open letter, dated April 5, P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of SPCSS-TN, expressed concern that the Bill — passed twice unanimously — had been delayed for over three years with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) posing “irrelevant questions, much to the frustration of Tamil Nadu government. He said that the Bill had already been passed with full support from the State’s elected representatives, and that the prolonged delay undermined the democratic process.

The letter criticised the actions of the President’s Secretariat, which, according to Mr. Babu, had mishandled communications pertaining to the Bill.

Mr. Babu further pointed out that the President’s Secretariat had forwarded his detailed representation to the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu and the MHA, raising questions about the accountability and transparency of the process.

The letter also touched upon broader issues of federalism and democracy, citing Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s views on the importance of State sovereignty and the democratic principle of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.