The Kerala High Court on Wednesday invalidated a last-minute alteration made by the state government to the KEAM 2025 entrance exam prospectus, terming the move “illegal, arbitrary, and unjustified.” The court ordered the authorities to revert to the original method for calculating ranks as outlined in the official prospectus released on February 19, 2025.
Justice D.K. Singh, delivering the verdict, strongly criticised the timing of the July 1 change, which came just one hour before the release of the KEAM rank list. The change reportedly revised the scoring formula, prompting a group of CBSE students to file a writ petition, alleging that it unfairly altered the evaluation process after the exam had already concluded.
“The change in the prospectus is set aside. The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations is directed to publish the rank list in accordance with the February 19 prospectus,” the court said in its ruling.
Justice Singh remarked that the abrupt decision appeared to be “mala fide” and “tailored” to favour a particular group. “Prima facie, 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,” the court observed.
The judgment concluded that such a retrospective alteration to entrance examination rules could not be justified under any legal or ethical framework. “Such an exercise of power is wholly arbitrary, illegal, unjustified, and cannot be countenanced on any ground,” the court noted.
Reacting to the ruling, Kerala Higher Education Minister R. Bindu said the government would consult Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to determine the next course of action. “The court’s decision will be studied in detail, and we will take an appropriate step after discussions,” she said.
The court’s direction to reissue the rank list using the original criteria is likely to have significant implications for admissions under KEAM 2025, the state’s premier entrance exam for engineering, architecture, and pharmacy courses.
