Kerala High Court maintains the decision to cancel the KEAM 2025 rankings list.
The Kerala High Court has upheld a single judge's order quashing the KEAM 2025 rank list, primarily due to the last-minute changes made to the rank calculation formula being deemed arbitrary and unfair.
The court's decision comes after a batch of writ petitions challenging a government order issued on July 1, 2025, which altered the weightage of Plus Two marks in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry from an equal ratio of 1:1:1 to a modified ratio of 5:3:2. This sudden change, made just an hour before the rank list publication, was met with criticism, particularly from students following the CBSE and ICSE syllabus.
The government's decision was found to be beyond the recommendations of its own expert committee. The committee had only advised reducing the number of years considered for standardisation and possibly adjusting the weightage between entrance marks and Plus Two scores, but did not support the adoption of the new 5:3:2 formula. The committee emphasised that implementing a new formula required a thorough, detailed study and was not feasible in the current year.
The Division Bench of Justices Anil K Narendran and Muralee Krishna S found no grounds to modify or interfere with the single judge's decision. They observed that the single judge had rightly concluded that the changes were unfair to CBSE and ICSE students and that the government's impromptu decision was unjustified and lacked a proper basis.
In summary, the Kerala High Court upheld the order because:
- The government made unilateral last-minute changes to the KEAM rank calculation formula without adequate justification. - These changes were arbitrary and unfair, especially to students from national boards (CBSE, ICSE). - The altered formula was not supported by the expert committee's recommendations, which required more study before adopting any new standardisation method. - The original prospectus formula was the legitimate basis for rank calculation, and altering it just before results publication violated principles of fairness and procedural regularity.
Following the verdict, a revised rank list using the original formula was published. The State of Kerala and the Commissioner for examination approached the Division Bench in appeal, but their request for a stay on the operation of the single judge's decision was dismissed. The State also sought an expeditious decision in the matter, as the admission process has to be completed before August 14, 2025, due to AICTE's deadline.
Senior counsel Kurian George Kannanthanam represented the students, while Advocate General K Goplakrishna Kurup represented the State in court. The court's decision underscores the importance of adhering to fair and transparent processes in educational admissions, particularly when it comes to last-minute changes that could potentially disadvantage certain groups of students.
- The court's decision on quashing the KEAM 2025 rank list emphasizes the significance of fair and transparent processes in educational admissions, particularly to ensure self-development opportunities are equitably accessible to all students, regardless of their syllabus.
- The sudden, arbitrary changes in the KEAM rank calculation formula could potentially hinder the education-and-self-development prospects of students following CBSE and ICSE syllabus, highlighting the need for proper, well-researched reforms to maintain fairness and equality.
