Kerala HC cancels KEAM exam results, setback to Vijayan govt

Kochi, July 9 (IANS) In a huge setback to the Vijayan government, the High Court on Wednesday cancelled the Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical (KEAM) exam results, which were published early this month.

The High Court pointed out that changing the prospectus at the final stage was wrong.

Following this, Justice D.K. Singh set aside the rank list published as per the amended prospectus and directed that a new, revised rank list be published in accordance with the unamended prospectus.

The KEAM entrance examination was conducted by the Commissioner of Entrance Examination from April 23 to 29.

The result was published on May 14, and the rank list was published on July 1. Trouble began when, on the date of the publication of the rank list, the state government passed a government order making amendments to the original prospectus.

As per the amended prospectus, the ratio of subject marks in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry was changed to 5:3:2 instead of the original 1:1:1 ratio.

The weightage given to students from the CBSE/ICSE syllabus was taken away by the state government.

In the writ petition, it was submitted that the said change at the last moment was unfair and arbitrary.

Reacting to the verdict that jolted the entire admission process, State Higher Education Minister Dr R. Bindhu said the state government made the change after looking into all issues.

“We were of the view that the changed norm will be a win-win situation for all. Now we will wait for the full verdict to come, and at Thursday’s cabinet meeting, we will again discuss this and will go for an appeal,” said Bindhu.

KEAM is the entrance examination conducted for admissions to all professional courses in the state except nursing.

Consequent to this new directive, the admissions to these professional courses, including medicine, engineering and others, will get delayed, which could cause trouble for all students waiting for a new career to begin.

--IANS

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