Justice denied: Kerala syllabus students move Supreme Court demanding cancellation of revised KEAM rank list

NEW DELHI: Kerala syllabus students have moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the revised KEAM rank list. They have pointed out in their petition filed in the Supreme Court that the revision of the rank list is a denial of natural justice. The petition has sought an immediate stay of the KEAM rank list.

"The government has the power to amend the prospectus. The High Court has intervened on a policy issue. Justice has been denied to the students of the Kerala syllabus," the petition states. The revised KEAM rank list was published the other day following the High Court order. There has been a big change in the new list. Students of the Kerala syllabus have lagged behind in the new list. Only 21 students in the first 100 ranks are from the Kerala syllabus. The change has been made even in the first rank.

The government had started the process for admission in the old formula after this. Students can apply till July 16. The first allotment list will be published on the 18th. The 2025 rank list of the KEAM exam, which is the basic criterion for admission to Kerala Engineering, Architecture and Pharmacy, was declared invalid by the High Court order.

The ranks were changed after the High Court Division Bench ruled that the plus two marks calculation for determining the rank of the KEAM exam should be done as per the published prospectus. The High Court's action came after a group of CBSE students filed a petition alleging that the last-minute changes made to calculate the rank list were illegal. The rank list has been published since 2011 by calculating the marks of class 12, the score of the entrance exam, along with the weightage. The weightage was introduced to avoid the allegation that the Kerala syllabus students getting more marks than CBSE students affects the rank list.

The petitioners alleged that this change had caused them to fall behind in the rank list. The High Court directed the publication of the revised rank list as per the procedure followed since 2011, finding that the change in weightage after the publication of the examination prospectus was illegal.