Will accept court verdict and publish revised KEAM rank-list at the earliest, says Higher Education Minister R. Bindu
Upholding a Single Bench's order, the Division Bench of Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S. observed that it found no ground to interfere with the Single Bench order which had directed the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations to publish the rank-list in accordance with the prospectus which had been issued in February.
The Division Bench added that the government had acted beyond the recommendations that had been made by its own expert committee, on which basis the earlier prospectus was prepared.
Time constraints
The Minister said the government respected the verdict and would not move the Supreme Court, citing time constraints. 'We cannot jeopardise the prospects of thousands of students. The revised rank-list will be published soon, based on the normalisation formula followed in previous years,' she said.
The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations has already initiated steps for the revision with an aim to completing the engineering admission process before the August 14 deadline set by All India Council for Technical Education.
Refutes charges
Refuting criticisms of the government mishandling the issue, Dr. Bindu asserted that the intention was to bring justice and fairness to the process. 'We realised that the existing procedure was skewed in favour of a particular section. Though the court did not question our intention, it flagged the timing of the change,' she said.
The Minister also clarified that the KEAM prospectus had clearly stated that the normalisation system could be modified by the government at any stage. 'Nonetheless, we will now adhere to the earlier system. There will not be any drastic change in the scores due to this correction,' the Minister added.
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