Highlights
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The High Court on Saturday directed authorities to redo the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) rankings for admission to undergraduate courses in Engineering and Technology for the academic year 2022-23 by considering both PU and CET marks in a 50:50 ratio.
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The order will come as a relief to as many as 23,000 candidates who sat for KCET again this year. But KEA sources pointed out that it will lead to large-scale revision of rankings and affect the ranks secured by thousands of fresh candidates.
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“If we have to redo ranks for repeaters, then ranks of the freshers will be automatically changed,” a KEA source said.
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“There are over 23,000 repeater candidates. If we consider 2nd PU marks along with KCET performance and allot ranks, then the ranks of 23,000 fresh candidates will go down,” the source pointed out.
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Sources also said that the KEA may not challenge the order as it will “unnecessarily” delay the counselling process and commencement of the academic year.
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Allowing a batch of petitions filed by students, Justice S R Krishna Kumar directed the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to conduct the redo exercise as expeditiously as possible and without reference to the proviso (or clause) inserted by the government order dated September 1, 2021.
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The proviso came about as a result of the pandemic, which forced the government to drop the idea of holding exams for II PU. Instead, students were passed through an internal assessment method.
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According to the clause inserted by the government, merit shall be determined through only marks obtained in the CET conducted for the academic year 2021-22.
However, the KEA on July 30, 2022 issued a note, stating that qualifying marks (obtained via internal assessment) of the students in 2021, which were not considered for CET ranking for 2021-22, will not be considered for the academic year 2022-23 as well.
The repeaters challenged both the proviso as well the note, which they termed “discriminatory”. Students sought a direction to authorities to consider their II PUC and CET marks in equal proportion, on par with fresher students, for the CET 2022-2023.
Justice Krishna Kumar observed that any attempt to extend the proviso to rule 4 for the academic year 2022-23 will be irrational, illegal and unreasonable as it was prescribed only for the year 2021-22.
“The proviso to Rule 4 inserted in 2021 clearly indicates that its operation and applicability is restricted and limited to determination of merit with reference to the marks obtained in CET conducted for 2021-22,” said Justice Kumar.
The court said with the “said CET having already been conducted, the said proviso does not survive any longer and is not applicable to CET conducted in the academic year 2022-23”.
Hence, the “impugned note is contrary to the Rules and deserves to be quashed”, the court said.
When contacted, KEA executive director Ramya S said she will wait for the order copy to make a decision.
