KOCHI: With students belonging to the state syllabus deciding to move the Supreme Court against the Kerala High Court verdict on the KEAM rank list, legal experts point out that it would be a futile exercise. They instead suggest filing a fresh writ in the HC against the standardisation process.
Speaking to TNIE, S K Saji, an advocate with Kerala HC, said, “The petitioners’ case will not have any standing. As such, the way the rank list was prepared was not proper. Instead of changing the questionable standardisation formula, which worked against state syllabus students, right at the prospectus level, it was done after the examination was conducted, and the results were to be announced. There was no notification in this regard. Hence, it has no legal standing.”
According to him, the aggrieved students must file a fresh writ in the HC, challenging the method used for standardisation. “If this writ is rejected or results in an unsatisfactory judgment, they can file a writ appeal with the division bench of the HC. And, only if the writ appeal doesn’t yield a satisfactory result should they approach the SC.”
Pointing out that a writ petition questioning the merit of the standardisation process is already pending before the HC, Sagith Kumar V, another HC lawyer, said, “If the aggrieved students of 2025 KEAM file a writ, they will get additional support from the existing petition. They can thread both, making their plea stronger.”
According to him, the petition, that had been in pendency, will be brought before the court in two weeks.
“We were waiting for the hullabaloo over KEAM 2025 to end. This petition was filed by a candidate who lost 22.5 marks in KEAM 2024. As a result, he didn’t get admission to a premier college.”
‘Over 1,000 students willing to support plea’
Nearly 15 students have joined as parties in the petition against the revised KEAM rank list in the SC, with over 1,000 students willing to move forward with it, a student representative said. The state syllabus students made the appeal by highlighting the state government’s power to amend the prospectus. “The standardisation procedure had been discriminatory against the state syllabus students over the years, while the CBSE students have enjoyed undue privilege,” Advocate on Record Zulfiker Ali said. They also said advocate Prashanth Bhushan will mention the case in the chief justice’s court, urging him to hear the plea sooner. Meanwhile, the state has decided to write to the All India Council for Technical Education to extend the deadline for admission procedures completion.