Behind the dispute over the Kerala Engineering and Architecture Examination (KEAM) merit list

Indian Express

18-07-2025

The results of the Kerala Engineering, Architecture and Medical Entrance Examination 2025 (KEAM-2025), published early this month, have led to a legal battle between applicants from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and state board streams.
On Wednesday (July 16), the Supreme Court heard the matter. According to an official notification, 86,549 candidates appeared for the KEAM engineering examination this year. Around 67,505 students have been included in the rank list.
Here is what has happened.
On July 1, the commissioner of the entrance examination published the rank list for engineering and architecture admissions. This was done an hour after amending the prospectus that was first published back in February, with regard to the criteria for calculating marks.
The amendment reportedly ensured better representation of students who studied in state board-affiliated schools in the rank list. However, the CBSE students then approached the Kerala High Court, which cancelled the rank list and asked the state to prepare a fresh list according to the previous norms in the prospectus.
The government appealed in the court, but a division bench of the HC rejected it, resulting in the publication of a new rank list based on the previous prospectus norms. On Tuesday, state board students approached the Supreme Court, challenging the revised rank list.
Rationale behind the changed calculation
When the prospectus was published on February 19, it said the 10+2 marks of Maths, Physics and Chemistry will be accounted for in the ratio of 1:1:1. Both the marks obtained in the entrance examination and the 10+2 board examination will be considered in a 50/50 scheme for admissions.
However, on July 1, the government tweaked the formula so that the Maths, Physics, and Chemistry marks would be in the ratio of 5:3:2, instead of the earlier ratio used since 2011.
The government was of the view that the amendment will rectify a disparity caused by the existing formula, which left the Kerala board students in a disadvantaged position. It claimed the new norms will give a level playing field for students from both boards. This was also deemed necessary because a section of the state board students hail from lower and middle-class backgrounds and study at public schools.
Therefore, after the prospectus was published in February, the government formed a standardisation review committee on April 9 to study the formula used to calculate standardised/normalised marks and suggest amendments. After examining the recommendations, the government decided to amend the formula for preparing the KEAM-2025 rank list, in a bid to remove disparity between students from the two boards.
Impact on the results
When the rank list was prepared after amending the formula, state board students performed well. The top 5,000 ranks included 2,539 students from the Kerala board, and 2,220 were from the CBSE. This slight edge for state board students was attributed to the last-minute change in the marks formula. In KEAM-2024, as many as 2,785 students in the first 5,000 ranks were from the CBSE stream, and 2,034 were from the state board.
This year, when the first list was published, 55 students were from CBSE and 43 from Kerala board in the top 100 rankings. After the revised list, this changed to 79 and 21, respectively.
In the past too, when performance in the entrance examination was the sole criterion for the rank list, a major chunk of the top rank holders were from the CBSE stream. The government was of the view that if the practice continued, only the students who can afford the costly coaching for entrance exams would figure in the list.
What courts held
When the CBSE students legally challenged the prospectus revision, the High Court said, 'It appears that somebody looked at the results and found that the students from the Kerala stream have not done fairly good, and to satisfy the constituency, such a mala fide decision in an arbitrary manner has been taken to change the prospectus one hour before the publication of the result.
Such an exercise of power is wholly arbitrary, illegal, unjustified and cannot be countenanced on any ground. Rules of the game cannot be changed midway, once the game has begun.''
Aggrieved over the High Court verdict, the Kerala board students approached the Supreme Court, which did not stay the revised rank list. The court said it did not want to create a sense of 'uncertainty' among students.' The BTech admission process is slated for completion by August 14.
The court also served notices to the state commissioner for the entrance examination and has listed the matter for next month.