Karnataka HC rules on the validity of exam decisions and petitioner’s requests

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Justice S. Sunil Dutt Yadav stated that the court cannot challenge the validity of government decisions regarding the applicable syllabus, as these are based on expert evaluations.

Petitioner Thamay U from Bengaluru had requested that the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) conduct counselling for engineering seats based on the original rank list, which included all questions. He also sought higher marks due to the perceived difficulty of CBSE papers compared to PUC papers.

Thamay argued that 50 questions were removed before evaluation, which he claimed wasted his time on questions that were later discarded as per reports.

Additional Advocate General Vikram Huilgol, representing the state, informed the court that a committee had reviewed questions deemed 'out of syllabus' for CET-2024 and confirmed that the removed questions were indeed outside the syllabus.

He emphasised that grievances should not disrupt the entire process. The court acknowledged the state's actions to address concerns about syllabus issues and supported the justification for removing out-of-syllabus questions.

Justice Yadav emphasised that the court cannot question decisions made based on expert opinions about the syllabus and urged that measures be taken to prevent similar issues in the future, as per reports.

Regarding the petitioner's request for higher marks due to the difficulty of CBSE papers, the court noted that such matters should be considered at the policy level by the government.