The government has filed a statement of objections in the batch of petitions filed by the 2020-21 Common Entrance Test (CET) repeaters, terming the prayer sought by the petitioners as untenable.
Justice S R Krishna Kumar adjourned the hearing to August 22, suggesting that the government explore the possibility of a solution.
Justice Kumar orally asked the government to explore if it is possible to have a 75:25 (75 CET and 25 II PU marks) arrangement for the petitioners and similarly placed students, instead of their prayer for 50:50 marks.
In its statement of objections, the government said that, in 2021, the highest number of students (33,746) had scored above 91% in II PU, compared to 2020 (14,949) and 2022 (21,366).
The statement said if the petitioners’ request is acceded to, the ranks of the students of 2022 will get altered to their detriment and their efforts of appearing and passing with high percentage in the qualifying examination will be jeopardised. The petitioners, who never appeared in the qualifying examination, will march over in the ranking, it said.
“The petitioner students not having written the II PU board examinations during the pandemic year and having taken the benefit of sitting only for CET for the academic year 2021-22 and securing seats in professional educational institutions based only on the CET examination cannot now claim that the II PU marks afforded to them in 2020-21 be calculated as per section 4 (1)(c) of Karnataka selection of candidates for admission to government seats in professional educational institutions rules, 2006,” the statement said.