Kerala High Court Rejects CBSE Students' Challenge To State's 2026 Standardisation Formula For Professional Courses Admission
The Kerala High Court on Monday (June 8) rejected a plea filed by CBSE students challenging the State Government's 2026 Prospectus for Admission to Professional Degree Courses with respect to the standardisation formula for preparing ranklist to Engineering courses.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas remarked that the introduction of the new scheme of standardisation of marks is a matter of policy of the government and courts, not being experts in academic matters, can interfere only in exceptional circumstances.
The petitioners before the Court were students who intended to take part in the State entrance examination. According to them, the new normalisation brought in by the 2026 Prospectus created great prejudice to CBSE students and the same was implemented without any expert study.
The case of the petitioners was that the present change is arbitrary and without scientific evaluation.
The Commissioner of Entrance Examinations took the stand that the government is entitled to lay down prescriptions in the prospectus in accordance with its policy and the same cannot be tested. Further, it was also argued that the new standardisation is brought in for the very purpose of removing the disparity that used to exist with the earlier standardisation methods.
It was also pointed out that an Internal Committee comprising the Commissioner for Entrance Examination, the Director of Technical Education and the Director of SCERT reviewed the standardisation process and it was decided that the normalisation method adopted in Tamil Nadu can be adopted in Kerala as well.
In the present normalisation process, the highest marks obtained in each respective Board is treated as 100% so as to ensure that no student from any Board gets any undue advantage.
After hearing the parties, the Court examined the history of the standardisation system adopted by the government in 2012 and 2025.
Case No: W.P.(C) Nos.4399 & 1480/2026
Case Title: Jomon Jaison and Ors. v. State of Kerala and Anr. and connected case
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 317
Counsel for the petitioners: T.S. Harikumar, P.B. Sahasranaman, P. Mohandas, K. Sudhinkumar, Sabu Pullan, R. Bhaskara Krishnan, Bharath Mohan, Dr. K.P. Satheesan (Sr.)
Counsel for the respondents: P.G. Pramod - Senior Government Pleader, N. Manoj Kumar - State Attorney