Kerala High Court upholds order quashing KEAM 2025 rank list

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday upheld a single judge Bench decision to annul the Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical Entrance Exam (KEAM) 2025 rank list [State of Kerala v. Hana Fatima Ahinus]

The single judge had held that last-minute changes made to the entrance exam prospectus, on the manner in which the ranks were to be decided, were arbitrary and unfair to CBSE and ICSE students.

Today, a Division Bench of Justices Anil K Narendran and Muralee Krishna S said that it found no reason to modify the single judge's decision.

"It is after considering the rival contentions that the learned Single Judge interfered with the Government order and disposed of the writ petitions. We find absolutely no grounds to interfere with the reasoning of the Single Judge in the said decision. In the result, these writ appeals fail and they are accordingly dismissed," the Court's order stated.

The single judge's order was passed on a batch of writ petitions filed by students and school bodies who appeared for KEAM 2025, challenging a government order (GO) issued on July 1, 2025.

This GO, which was published an hour before the rank list was published, modified the subject-wise consideration of Plus Two marks in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry to determine KEAM ranks, changing the ratio from 1:1:1 to 5:3:2.

The single judge had held that the government's last-minute change in the prospectus, modifying the standardisation method used for calculating ranks, was illegal, arbitrary, and unfair to students following the CBSE or ICSE syllabus.

Following the verdict, the State of Kerala and the Commissioner for examination approached the Division Bench in appeal.

The State contended that the decision to amend the formula was made to address complaints from students following the State syllabus, alleging that CBSE students were receiving an unfair advantage due to the earlier standardisation method.

This change in the prospectus, according to the government, was made after receiving inputs from a standardisation review committee and the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations.

The State urged the Court to stay the operation of the single judge's judgment and allow the use of the revised formula for preparing the rank list. The State also sought an expeditious decision in the matter, as the admission process has to be completed before August 14, 2025, as per AICTE's (All India Council for Technical Education) deadline. Any delay due to re-ranking would jeopardise the admission schedule, the State said.

However, the Division Bench dismissed the State's appeal, finding that there was no merit to in its arguments.

"A reading of the report of the standardisation review committee, which was relied on by the Advocate General, would not in any manner support the decision now taken by the Government for adopting an entirely different standardisation procedure," it noted, in its order.

Advocate General K Goplakrishna Kurup appeared for the State.

Senior counsel Kurian George Kannanthanam appeared for the students.

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