Mangaluru: The PU results were announced on Wednesday, May 26 and candidates are now awaiting results of Common Entrance test and the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) which is to be announced on May 28.
But, if one goes by the notification of the Government of Karnataka, Education Secretariat No. ED 10 TEC 2006 Bangalore dated 28th February 2006, 4th page, Sl no.3 (b), it clearly states-(i) a candidate is eligible to write CET, if one has passed the second year Pre-University or XII standard or equivalent examination, held, preceding the entrance test. According to this notification, all those who have passed, second year Pre-University or XII std or equivalent examination after result were announced on May 25th they became eligible to write CET for government quota seats, conducted for the purpose of determining the eligibility / merit, for admission of Karnataka candidates to the First year or First semester of full time courses in Medical, Dental, Ayurveda, Unani, Homoeopathy, Naturopathy & Yoga, D Pharma, B Pharma, Engineering, Technology and Architecture courses, in institutions within the State of Karnataka.
But CET conducted by KEA on May 4 and 5, 2016 was done by enrolling 1.78 lakhs ineligible candidates, against its own order. Also an amount of Rs.650/- was collected as fees for entrance exams from each one of them.
Since the government knowingly has permitted those ineligible candidates to write CET, the question that now arises is will the government reimburse the fee that was collected from the ones who have failed in II PUC exams? Last year, an activist had pointed out to the government about the illegality of conducting CET by enrolling ineligible candidates. The complaint fell on deaf ears and the government remained indifferent, and went ahead this year too in conducting CET way before the PU results were out. A complaint was made to Upalokayukta. In the absence of Lokayukta a notice was issued to KEA, and the Administrative officer, Gangadaraiah has given a reply which is legally indefensible.
Common Entrance Test (CET) was introduced with a motive to give seats to meritorious students who aspire to get admissions into professional courses, as desired by them, if supported by the marks they have obtained in the 2nd PU or XII std or equivalent examination along with the marks obtained in entrance test.
It may be noted that except for MBBS, for all other professional courses, hundreds to thousands of seats are lying vacant for many years now. High court of Karnataka on 3.4.2014 has correctly observed in a Writ Petition no.51937-38 of 2012 filed by 1000 students who got admissions into Dental Courses in the 2012 without writing CET. Those 1000 students were allowed to continue in their course by making an important observation and giving relief. If the seats available are lesser in number than the aspirants seeking admission against those vacant seats- there can be no doubt that without an entrance test being conducted to gauge the inter-se merit, no admissions can be made. However, if the available seats are more than the candidates, who are otherwise eligible for admission, the holding of an entrance test to address their inter se merit would be unnecessary and meaningless.
If the above High court observation is the ground and given relief to 1000 students who got admissions without writing CET, why not should candidates now write CET for courses were seats are more than aspirants, and when everyone is assured of a seat in a professional course, which they desire to pursue, provided they have obtained desired marks in second year Pre-University or XII std or equivalent examination, ask many students.
