‘Unjustified, illegal’: HC cancels KEAM 2025 result, orders fresh rank list over last-minute changes

In an unexpected turn of events, the High Court of Kerala has cancelled the Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical Entrance Examination (KEAM) 2025 results and directed the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) to prepare a fresh KEAM rank list 2025 based on the old prospectus. The HC was hearing a writ petition against the last-minute changes in KEAM prospectus 2025 with regard to Kerala Plus Two marks 2025.

Setting aside the changes, Justice D K Singh observed that the change in KEAM prospectus 2025 one hour before the publication of KEAM 2025 rank list, that too after the exam, is “wholly unjustified, illegal and arbitrary”.

“Prima facie, it appears that somebody looked at the results and found that the students from the Kerala stream have not done fairly good, and to satisfy the constituency, such a mala fide decision in an arbitrary manner has been taken to change the prospectus one hour before the publication of the result on July 1, 2025. Such an exercise of power is wholly arbitrary, illegal, unjustified and cannot be countenanced on any ground,” the court observed.

Justice Singh said that once the exam has been conducted, the government has no power to change the prospectus. “Rules of the game cannot be changed midway, once the game has begun,” he remarked.

KEAM 2025: Formula to calculate Class 12 marks

CEE Kerala asked KEAM 2025 candidates to submit their marks obtained in Class 12 board exams and when the authorities saw poor performance from the students of Kerala, they decided to change the formula, the court charged. KEAM 2025 result was declared on May 14.

The court noted that usually the exam prospectus cannot be changed after the last date of application submission. However, not only was the KEAM 2025 registration deadline over, the entrance exam was also already held from April 23 to April 29. The KEAM prospectus was issued on February 19, 2025 and the last date to apply was March 12, 2025.

“The Government suddenly woke up because it got some supernatural wisdom to realise that the prospectus was glaringly illegal. Therefore, it needed amendment, that too, one hour before the publication of the rank list, i.e. on 01.07.2025,” the HC remarked.

The KEAM 2025 prospectus published in February prescribed that the marks of physics, chemistry, and mathematics shall be in the ratio of 1:1:1. The government changed the formula for counting the marks in PCM, making the ratio 5:3:2, and declared the KEAM results 2025 exactly one hour later, the court noted. The High Court was hearing a petition filed by students who passed the Class 12 board exams from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).