Karnataka cracks down on seat blocking, excludes IIT and NIT admits from CET counselling

The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has announced that students who have secured admissions in IITs or NITs through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) will be barred from participating in Karnataka’s state engineering counselling process to curb seat blocking.

This move comes in response to irregularities reported during CET 2024, where 53 students claimed their credentials were misused, resulting in seat blocking.

Among them, five were already enrolled in premier institutes like IITs and NITs. Investigations revealed that the IP addresses of over 2,000 candidates had been exploited.

"We're writing to the central agency to share data with us on students who have taken admissions in IITs and NITs. Once they report to the colleges, we will not allow them to proceed with CET counseling here," said KEA executive director H Prasanna.

KEA is now seeking data from the National Testing Agency to cross-verify JEE admissions, as it already has access to medical and dental admissions through its NEET counselling operations.

Since JEE counselling concludes by July and CET continues until October, KEA plans to filter out ineligible candidates during this period.

"Since KEA conducts NEET counselling, we already have data on admissions in medical and dental colleges. However, we'll need data from the National Testing Agency on JEE admissions. While JEE counselling happens in June-July, our counselling will go on till Sept-Oct," he added.

Officials believe that the credentials of successful JEE candidates are being misused by others to block CET seats fraudulently.

To prevent this, KEA is introducing a facial tagging mechanism.

Students will need to collect a confirmation slip, present it at the college along with an OTP, and verify their identity in person before receiving their admission ticket.

"This year, we are introducing facial tagging. We'll ask students to take a confirmation slip from KEA and go to college, show their face, and give an OTP to the principal. The principal will provide the admission ticket," Prasanna said.

Additionally, KEA will implement a mandatory payment step before option entry to ensure traceability through bank transactions.

A dedicated cell is also being planned to track and monitor students flagged during the process, including those switching to allied courses like nursing.