Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has disposed of a petition filed by an 18-year-old student challenging the state’s decision to expunge 50 questions from KCET-2024 for being out of syllabus.
Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav said that the court cannot enter into the aspect of validity of decisions taken by the government based on the applicable syllabus which is the decision of the experts.
The petitioner Thamay U, a resident of Bengaluru, had sought a direction to the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to conduct counselling for engineering seats based on the rank list prepared, including all the questions. He had also sought direction to provide higher marks to him, while calculating the rank list considering the difficulty level of CBSE papers over PUC papers.
The petitioner, who appeared in person before the court, submitted that 50 questions were expunged at the stage prior to the evaluation. The petitioner contended that he could have devoted his time in answering other questions rather than spending time on the questions which have been expunged.
On the other hand, Additional Advocate General Vikram Huilgol, appearing for the state said the government had set up a committee to examine 'out of syllabus' questions in CET-2024 and the committee had come up with a clear finding that the questions that have been excluded are questions outside the syllabus. It was also submitted that individual grievances may not have the effect of unsettling the entirety of the process.
The court noted that the state’s action was after considering the complaints regarding the questions which were outside the syllabus. “If that were to be so, asking questions outside the syllabus which was in the public domain is perfectly justifiable,” Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav said.
The court further said, "The court cannot enter into the aspect of validity of decisions taken by the Government based on the applicable syllabus which is the decision of the experts. Needless to state that such mistakes ought not to occur in future. The KEA and the State are required to take adequate measures to avoid such situations in future,”
Insofar as the other prayer, seeking higher marks to the petitioner who studied in CBSE, while calculating the rank considering the difficulty level of CBSE papers, the court said these are matters that are to be kept open for appropriate consideration at policy level by the government.