The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) after hearing a plea of repeat students who are protesting against their pre-university (PU) marks not being considered while deciding on the final Common Entrance Test (CET) ranks. Justice S R Krishna Kumar issued the notice and adjourned the matter for hearing on Monday, August 8.

Around 24,000 repeat students appeared for the exam this year and have been protesting against their marks not being added to the final score, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.

The petitioner Eshwar and others, through their advocate Shathabish Shivanna, contended that non-consideration of marks was in violation of the CET-2006 Admission Rules leading to depletion in ranks and was unfair to repeat students. The students complained that the KEA decision was discriminatory in nature.

The KEA had issued a notice on August 1, 2022 putting off the verification process until further notice. However, it was orally stated by the authorities that it will commence on August 8.

Shivanna argued that if the verification process initiates on Monday, then students will be left with no choice but to accept their ranks. He sought an interim order to provide and allot professional seats taking into consideration both PU and CET marks equally. He said that the court assured that no verification process will be initiated till August 8.

Advocate N K Ramesh, representing KEA, submitted that similar petitions were filed and grant of any interim order at this stage will have repercussions and KEA would put forth its argument.

Ramya S, Executive Director, KEA, told TNIE earlier, that last year the government decided that CET rankings will be given on the basis of CET score only for repeat students as they did not write the board exams last year. They were given marks on general assessment basis and since it was not based on merit, the marks were not considered for repeat students, she said.

Nikesh, a repeat student, said, "KEA authorities did not consider our request to include PU marks in the final score but asked us to approach the court instead". The rank he scored this year was 66,000.