Karnataka High Court Dismisses Appeal Challenging State Govt's Decision To Expunge 50 Out-Of-Syllabus Questions From KCET-2024

A division bench of Chief Justice N V Anjaria and Justice K V Aravind dismissed the appeal filed by 18-year-old, Thanmay U. A detailed order would be made available later.

The appellant had argued that marks in KCET are very important and they (Examination Authority) have excluded my 20 marks out of 39 questions attempted by me and hence I have been aggrieved by that order.

“I have secured 7640 ranking (In KCET) out of the questions which I have answered. The single judge bench held that questions were out of syllabus but still did not grant me the relief sought for by me,” it was submitted.

Further, it was said that one-fourth of the questions were out of the syllabus and as a student, he would not know whether these questions would be expunged or not. As a student I would definitely attempt all the questions in the paper.” Thus it was prayed that at least the appellants paper may be revalued and considered again, it was argued.

Around three lakh students had appeared for the CET-2024. Pursuant to the exams, student's parents and teachers complained about a number of questions from the papers out of the syllabus of CET. On receiving complaints the government had formed the committee.

The single judge had said, “The Court cannot enter into the aspect of validity of a decision taken by the Government based on the applicable syllabus which is the decision of the experts.”

It had told the government and Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) not to repeat such mistakes in the future. It said, “Needless to state that such mistakes ought not to occur in future. The KEA and the State are required to take adequate measures to avoid such situations in future.”

Agreeing with the state government that individual grievances may not have the effect of unsettling the entirety of the process, the court had refused to pass any direction in regards to providing higher marks to the petitioner who has studied in CBSE while calculating the rank considering the difficulty level of CBSE papers over PUC papers.

Appearance: Advocate Ambrish B N for Appellant

AGA Niloufer Akbar for Respondents.

Citation No: 2024 Live Law (Kar) 332

Case Title: Thanmay U AND State of Karnataka & ANR

Case No: WA 1070/2024