In a major blow to the state government, a division bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday upheld a single bench order quashing the Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical (KEAM) exam 2025 results and dismissed the state government’s appeal against the single bench order.
The division bench comprising Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S found no grounds to interfere with the single bench order, stating that the government had acted beyond the recommendations of its own expert committee when it changed the standardisation formula.
The bench observed that the expert committee had only recommended reducing the number of years considered for standardisation and possibly shifting to a 60:40 weightage between entrance marks and +2 scores. However, there was no recommendation to implement the 5:3:2 formula. “The report relied on by the advocate general does not support the government’s decision to adopt an entirely different standardisation procedure, the bench said.
“We find that the report of the Standardisation Review Committee, which has been relied on by counsel on both sides, makes it explicit that the committee opined that introducing a new formula or making any modification to the existing one would be possible only after a thorough and detailed study. The committee concluded that implementing a new formula this year is not feasible. However, it recommended that for the present year, the number considered for calculating the standard deviation be reduced to five. The committee also suggested to revise the existing 50:50 ratio to a new ratio of 60:40. A reading of the report of the Standardisation Review Committee, which was relied on by the Advocate General, does not in any manner support the decision now taken by the government for adopting an entirely different standardisation procedure,” the division bench said.
A single bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday annulled the results of the Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical (KEAM) exam, observing that last-minute changes to the prospectus were illegal.
Justice DK Singh set aside the rank list published as per the amended prospectus and directed that a new, revised rank list be published in accordance with the unamended prospectus. The court observed that the revised method of calculating engineering entrance ranks adversely affected students from the CBSE syllabus.