Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas granted relief to the students by invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, after taking note of the exceptional circumstances, including delayed publication of their revalued marks.

“The situation in the instant writ petitions is undoubtedly exceptional. The valuation of the CBSE Board answer sheets had numerous flaws…Further, though majority of the revaluations were done, petitioners fell into a category whose revalued results were published only after the rank list was published -again for no fault of theirs. They have also approached this Court without any delay. Though the process of admissions is a laborious task for the authorities, that per se cannot be a ground for compromising merit, especially when a candidate of higher merit has approached this Court without undue delay. On a consideration of the circumstances mentioned above, this Court is of the view that the three petitioners also fall in the category of exceptional situation. Exceptional circumstances warrant exceptional measures,” the Court opined.

The Court, however, clarified that the revalued marks of no other person should be permitted to be uploaded under any circumstance.

The petitioners before the Court had applied for the 2026 KEAM exam and they had uploaded the initial marks obtained by them for the qualifying exams. Later, they applied for revaluation since they felt that the marks obtained very lower than expected. After revaluation, their marks got increased. Their revaluation results were published on June 26 and June 27.

Taking note of the controversy relating to CBSE Board exams, the Government of Kerala had changed the date of publication of rank list twice so as to accommodate the CBSE students. Time was granted till June 23 to upload the marks and the rank list was published on June 27. Seeking a direction to accept their revised marks and to revise their ranks, the petitioners approached the High Court.

The petitioners contended that they approached the Court at the very first opportunity, without any delay. It was also pointed out that they were put in this position due to no fault of theirs, but due to delay in publication of results by the Board.

Referring to an earlier order of the Court that granted the benefit of uploading of revised marks to certain petitioners, the petitioners herein also sought similar relief. They sought for opportunity in the next allotment since first allotment was already done.

The government pleader submitted that in earlier writ petitions, the Court had specified that benefit would be confined only to those petitioners and therefore, the petitioners herein cannot claim similar relief. It was also pointed out that the allotment processes have already started on July 8 and therefore, any change in rank list would disturb the admission process.

The CBSE's standing counsel submitted that revalued results were published in batches from June 21 and also that the Board had written to the Commissioner of Entrance Examination on June 25 that the results of the remaining students will be published shortly.

After hearing the parties, the Court felt that its observation confining benefits to the petitioners in the earlier plea should not stand in the way of the petitioners herein, who had genuine claims. It also noted that the petitioners had all approached it at the first opportunity, considering that they included an overseas student, and a student from the hilly area of Wayanad.

“this Court is of the view that the three petitioners cannot be denied the benefit on the ground of delay. They have approached the Court for redressal of their grievances at the earliest possible opportunity… However, as the allotment process has already started, the relief has to be moulded in such a manner that the allotment process, already commenced, will not be affected… The candidature of the petitioners for admission on the basis of the ranks so granted to them, after recasting the rank list, shall be considered only from the next allotment onwards, and they shall not be entitled to claim any benefit in the first allotment,” the Court observed.

Thus, the Court directed the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations to keep the web portal open and to accept their revalued marks if they upload with the time specified by the Court. The Commissioner was further directed to recast their rank list on the basis of their revalued marks before the second allotment commences.

Thus, it allowed the pleas.

Case Nos: W.P.(C) No.22847/2026 and connected cases

Case Titles: Farasha Shabnam v. State of Kerala and Ors. and connected cases

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 377

Counsel for the petitioners: Ummul Fida, Khaleequ Zaman, Ajith Viswanathan , Jai Govind M.J., John Gomez, Anandu R., Vrinda Babu, Sarath Viswanathan, Aman Manzoor, Kevin Jose Shibu, Joseph Francis

Counsel for the respondents: Laya Mary Joseph – Government Pleader, Nirmal S. – Standing Counsel - CBSE

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