Kerala High Court rejects plea against including class 12 marks of CBSE, ICSE students for engineering entrance

The Kerala High Court on Friday declined to issue any directions to the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations to exclude class 12 marks secured by CBSE and ICSE students while considering applications to professional courses, particularly engineering courses for the current academic year (S Sidharth Nair v. State of Kerala).Single-judge Justice PB Suresh Kumar dismissed the petitions but clarified that the Court is allowing the petitions praying for extension of application date so that the result of improvement exams can be considered for admission..The Court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by ICSE and CBSE students who approached the Court challenging the evaluation criteria for admission to engineering colleges in Kerala as per which the marks scored by students in class 12 board exams are given equal weight along with the entrance examination score.The petitioners sought a directive to the State to consider the marks secured by students in the entrance examination alone while providing admission to professional courses in the academic year 2021-2022.According to the petitioners, this policy of "assessment standardisation" or moderation policy adopted by CBSE and ICSE boards to calculate the class 12 examination scores, puts them at a severe disadvantage while applying for engineering courses in comparison to State board students.Owing to the pandemic, CBSE schools and ISCE schools in the State had not conducted final examinations for Grades X and XII.Instead, they had adopted a moderation policy whereby, no student of any school will score more than what was the highest average marks obtained by ex-students in the past three and five years respectively. This had been approved by the Supreme Court earlier this year.Consequently, a large number of students in CBSE and ICSE boards have had their marks reduced on the grounds that it exceeded the highest average marks obtained by ex-students in the last three and five years respectively, it was submitted.Moreover, it was contended that the more lenient method of evaluation adopted by the SSLC board gave its students an unfair advantage in procuring seats in engineering colleges in the state..Over the course of lengthy hearings this week, the Court had expressed its sympathy for the plight of ICSE students competing for limited seats at professional colleges based on their board exam marks. .Story to be updated with order.