Kerala High Court orders new rank list

The question regarding how the students who are at present in the rank list would be affected will be considered only after the new rank list is prepared by the CEE. "At present, our attempt is only to steer clear the ship from the troubled waters to the shore, causing minimum damageto those who sail," the court observed.

According to the panel, there were 10 faulty questions/answer keys in Mathematics, 18 in Physics, 6 in Chemistry, 9 in Botany and 6 in Zoology (a total of 49). There was no illegality in the procedure adopted by the CEE to equate the marks to 480 after deletion of the faulty questions/answer keys from each subject. The equation of total marks in all subjects was the more acceptable way to ensure minimum damage due to the deletion of faulty questions/answer keys.

The admission by the question setters and the CEE that the rank list was prepared on the basis of incorrect questions/answers keys would evidently shake the foundation of the rank list published, the Judges said. After hearing the entire matter concerning the fiasco, the court concluded that the allegations in the petition were grave and unprecedented.

Valuable time was lost due to no fault of the students. If such an illegally prepared rank list was relied upon to determine the fate of thousands ofcandidates, that would be a grave injustice to them. The position in the case was that many who had written correct answers had not only lost 4 marks, but were also awarded negative marks because of the mistakes in the answer keys themselves.

Competitive examinations are aimed at judging the caliber of the examinee, which is reflected in the answer sheets. The prospectus for the common entrance test had stated that there was no provision for revaluation or rechecking of answer sheets as their valuation would be error-free in all respects. When such a provision has been mentioned in the prospectus itself, a duty was cast on the CEE as well as the persons at the helm of affairs to see that the examination was error-free.

The examinees were entitled to have their papers correctly and properly valued. Arbitrary and capricious acts of the examiners were not immune from interference by the court under Article 226, the court stated, in answer to contentions that the petition alleging irregularities was notmaintainable.

In answer to the plea for revaluation of answer sheets, the court said that such a request couldn’t be accepted as it would cause great injustice to the students who had attended the examination after strenuous preparation. In the present situation, the only reasonable approach was to recast the entire rank list.

The question of revamping the entire examination system would be considered later. A paramount duty is cast upon the CEE and also the State Government to see that the examinations shall not be visited with such fundamental mistakes, the court said.

This year’s medical/engineering entrance examinations were held on June 11, 12 and 13. After the exams were over, some candidates submitted a report to the CEE stating that questions in the Physics and Mathematics papers did not have correct answers in the multiple choice given.