Setback for government again on KEAM rank list, HC dismisses plea

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has dismissed the plea filed by the state government in connection with the KEAM exam results. The court had the other day quashed the rank list. This order will stand. The court rejected government’s appeal by withholding single bench’s order. With this, the government is unable to proceed with the admission process.

The division bench upheld the finding of the single bench that it is not legal to change the weightage after issuing the prospectus and publishing the score of the entrance exam. The court had demanded to re-publish the results by calculating the weightage as per the norms from 2011. Many people included in the present rank list will be removed from the list with this. KEAM is the entrance exam for admission to engineering, architecture and pharmacy courses in the state.

The reason for the present crisis is the delay in implementing the reform brought to overcome the lagging behind of Kerala syllabus students in the mark standardization. The government argued that there was a provision to change the prospectus.

Meantime, with the high court ordering the continuation of the old formula for equalization of marks, the engineering entrance rank list will change drastically. The rank of all 76230 students on the list will change. Allotments will also be delayed. According to the new formula, the state syllabus students who came forward in the rank list will go behind. Those from other syllabuses will gain from it.

Since all the mark information has been collected digitally, a new rank list can be published within two days with a minor change in the software. Since the rank list includes those who have scored at least 10 marks in each subject in the entrance exam, the number of those on the list has not increased. Five of the top ten, including the first rank, are from the Kerala syllabus. There are 43 people in the top 100 ranks. The ranks may also change. The first rank came to the state syllabus after a long time after the equation formula was changed.