'Won't Interfere With KEAM Results On Facts; Will Consider Principle Of Law For Future' : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 15) orally remarked that it is not going to interfere with the Kerala Engineering Architecture and Medical (KEAM) exam results, but will consider for future the question of law whether the formula to standardise the marks of different boards can be changed after the exam.

A bench comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice AS Chandurkar was hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by students challenging the Kerala High Court's judgment which set aside the KEAM exam results on the ground that the standardisation formula as provided in the original prospectus was changed midway. Following the High Court's order, the State Government published revised results as per the unamended prospectus.

Today, the bench asked State's standing counsel, Advocate CK Sasi, to get instructions from the Government on whether they are planning to file a petition against the High Court's order. While posting the matter for tomorrow, Justice Narasimha observed :

"One thing we are clear. Existing selection processes, appointment processes, we are not going to interfere. Because the country is plagued with this problem of uncertainty. Every examination, every appointment gets challenged. So what we will do is, on principle, if they have a problem, we will consider it. But so far as the facts are concerned, we will not interfere. We will consider for future purposes," Justice Narasimha said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the petitioners.

Before the High Court, a writ petition was filed challenging the last-minute changes to the original KEAM prospectus. The State of Kerala, on the date of publication of the rank list, amended the prospectus. 

As per the amendment, the ratio of subject marks in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry was changed to 5:3:2 instead of the original 1:1:1 ratio. The weightage given to students from CBSE/ICSE syllabus was taken away by the State. 

The single bench of Justice D.K. Singh thus set aside the rank list published as per the amended prospectus and directed that a new, revised rank list be published in accordance with the un-amended prospectus. 

On appeal by the State of Kerala before the division bench, the bench of Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S said that it "finds no ground to interfere" with the reasoning of the single judge.

The present petition is filed by candidates from the State Higher Secondary Board who qualified the KEAM-2025 Exam and whose names were included in the rank list published on 01.07.2025 following the amendment made to the prospectus vide order dated 01.07.2025. 

The main contention of the petitioners is threefold: (1) the amendment to the prospectus was done with the objective of "curing the defect of disparity caused by the earlier formula that put the State Board students at a disadvantageous position and as a result of the amendment all candidates, regardless of their respective 10+2 Board examination, would be treated equally";

(2) The old formula applied was "disproportionate and disadvantageous to the majority of students studying under the state syllabus in government schools. It is important to note that in Kerala government school students predominately come from middle- and lower-income backgrounds"; (3) cancellation of the results would result in "causing grave prejudice to the Petitioners herein by allowing the disparity that was sought to be rectified by the order dated 01.07.2025 to prevail to the peril of the Petitioners, denying them a level paying field".

The petition was filed through Zulfikar Ali PS AOR.

Case : Mufeeda P and others v. State of Kerala and others | Diary No. 37302-2025