New Delhi: The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar on Wednesday clarified that it will not interfere in the KEAM 2025 admission process in Kerala or reinstate the rank list cancelled by the High Court. The court said any such intervention at this stage would create unnecessary uncertainty.

As a result, the High Court order quashing the government’s mark-normalisation formula remains in force, and there is no stay on the judgment. The apex court issued a notice on the special leave petition filed by students from the state syllabus stream challenging the High Court verdict.

Meanwhile, the Kerala government informed the court that it would not appeal the High Court’s ruling. Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the state, said that although the government initially considered filing an appeal, it ultimately decided against it, citing constraints including the AICTE’s August 2 deadline for completing admissions. He added that the government did not wish to cause inconvenience to students or disrupt the process.

During the hearing, advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing students from the Kerala syllabus, argued that the prospectus revision was made on the recommendation of an expert committee. He said court intervention was only warranted if there was prima facie evidence of discrimination, which, he claimed, did not exist in this case.

Kerala syllabus students had also requested an urgent hearing next week, citing the tight AICTE deadline. However, the bench declined, prompting Bhushan to call it a grave injustice to the students affected by the ruling. The bench remained firm in its decision.

The court directed all respondents, including the state government, to file counter-affidavits and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks. The counsel for the Kerala syllabus students expressed dissatisfaction over the delay.

The Supreme Court had earlier, on Tuesday, sought the Kerala government’s position on the High Court verdict. During Wednesday’s hearing, the state formally informed the bench of its decision not to pursue an appeal, bringing clarity to a contentious episode that has disrupted the admission process for engineering aspirants in the state.

The KEAM (Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical) controversy broke out after the state government introduced a new formula for rank list preparation just an hour before publication. The move, intended to address what the government termed a “systemic disadvantage” for students under the Kerala State syllabus, was later struck down by both a single bench and a division bench of the Kerala High Court.