BENGALURU: Confusion and tension prevailed among those selected for medical and dental courses that the counselling process may be stalled and ranking affected following the Madras High Court order asking Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) to award grace marks to all students who wrote the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in Tamil.
Though the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) and state Department of Medical Education officials insisted that there will not be any confusion, experts in the field said that ongoing allotment of seats will be affected since the court order will change all India rankings. They advised the KEA to put the process on hold until they receive communication from CBSE.
However, officials said that they will stick to their schedule. Manjula, Additional Chief Secretary with Department of Medical Education, said, “We have not received any communication from authorities concerned. Till then, we will go ahead with our schedule.”
The KEA also published the mock allotment for medical and dental seats on its official website on Wednesday evening. Dr S Kumar, Executive Secretary, COMEDK, said, “Though this will not affect allotment of seats in government colleges and of government-quota seats in private colleges, it will definitely affect institutional-quota seats and NRI seats. It is better for state officials to wait till further communication.”
The confusion arose out of a recent development in Tamil Nadu, where the High Court asked the CBSE to give grace marks of up to 196 points to all those who wrote the examination in Tamil, which could benefit around 24,000 students. This could definitely change the rank list throughout the country — one mark could change your rank by 2,000 in all-India level. But, the KEA and the state department officials insisted that it will not since this is applicable only to Tamil Nadu students, who cannot claim seats under the state quota.
When TNIE contacted the CBSE in New Delhi, an official said that they are yet to receive a copy of the order, after which they will study and take further action. Option entry for engineering seats opens on Wednesday, the option entry for engineering students was opened. An announcement of schedule of events for all the counselling processes was also made.