Karnataka High Court directs KEA to redo rank allotment by considering marks in 50:50 ratio, even for repeaters

Now, KEA will have to redo the entire process of allotting ranks for all students who wrote CET-22 by considering II PU marks and CET-2022 marks in the 50:50 ratio

The High Court of Karnataka on Saturday directed the State government and the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to redo the CET-2022 ranking by taking II Pre-University course marks and CET-2022 marks in the 50:50 ratio, even for the petitioner students who have passed II PUC in 2021.

Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar delivered the verdict by allowing a batch of petitions filed by Eswhar R and other students questioning the different yardstick adopted in awarding ranks to them in KCET-2022.

With this order, the KEA will have to redo the entire process of allotting ranks of all the students who have written CET-22. The Court set aside the note issued by the KEA that marks of only CET-22 was considered for the students who passed II PU in 2021 while announcing the CET results.

The petitioner-students had passed the II year Pre-University Course (PUC) in 2020-21 and rewritten the Common Entrance Test (CET) in 2022.

However, the KEA had considered only the marks obtained in the CET-2022 subjects to award ranks to the students, who had passed II PUC in 2021 without writing exams as marks were awarded through a special scheme formulated in view of COVID-19.

On the other hand, for students who passed II PU in 2021-22, the KEA had considered II PU marks and CET-22 marks in the 50:50 ratio as per law, which had been followed every year except in CET-2021.

The petitioner-students had contended that, by not considered their II PUC marks while awarding ranks, the different yardsticks adopted amounted to discrimination against them.