State Govt's Decision To Expunge 50 Out-Of-Syllabus Questions From KCET-2024 Cannot Be Interfered With By Court: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court has refused to look into the validity of the State government's decision to set up a committee to examine 'out of syllabus' questions asked in the Karnataka CET 2024 exams held in April and its finding to exclude around 50 questions which were out of syllabus.

A single judge bench of Justice S Suni Dutt Yadav while disposing of a petition filed by 18-year-old, Thanmay U who argued the case in person said, “The Court cannot enter into the aspect of validity of decision taken by the Government based on the applicable syllabus which is the decision of the experts.”

It has 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.”

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.

In his petition, Thanmay had sought a direction to the KEA to conduct the counselling for Engineering seats based on the rank list prepared including all the 180 questions. To provide higher marks to him while calculating the rank list considering the difficulty level of CBSE papers over PUC papers.

It was claimed by him that if would have been aware that the out-of-syllabus questions would be expunged, he would have devoted his time in answering other questions rather than spending time on those expunged questions. The expunged questions in the four subjects are substantial so as to have prejudiced many of the candidates including him who have spent time in answering them.

The state government opposed the plea saying that the syllabus was already made known to the students and accordingly, the action of exclusion of questions has been resorted to.

The bench on going through the records said “The action of the State is after considering the complaints stated to have been made regarding the questions asked which were outside the syllabus. If that were to be so, asking questions outside the syllabus which syllabus was in the public domain is perfectly justifiable.”

Stating that such questions outside the syllabus ought not to have been asked at the first instance at all. The court said “Needless to state the apprehension of the petitioner as also of other students that, such exclusion of questions has caused prejudice insofar as the candidates would have adjusted the time depending on the questions that they are in a better position to answer, is an aspect that is to be taken note of appropriately in order 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 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.

However, it noted “These are matters that are to be kept open for appropriate consideration at policy level by the Government. It would not be practical to pass any direction in that regard as regards the present year.”

Appearance: Master Thanmay U—Party in person.

Additional Advocate General Vikram Huilgol a/w AGA Navya Shekar for R1.

Advocate N K Ramesh for R2.

Citation No: 2024 LiveLaw (Kar) 319

Case Title: Thanmay U AND State of Karnataka & ANR

Case No: WRIT PETITION NO. 16700 OF 2024

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