Chaos at KEA as students, parents seek seat cancellation

On Thursday, chaos erupted at the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) office as hundreds of students and parents arrived seeking to cancel seats allotted in the second round of engineering and professional course counselling. KEA had only permitted online seat cancellations for those who were offered engineering seats in the 2nd round but wished to bypass the counselling window.

To curb seat blocking, the authority made admission mandatory for candidates who received seats in the 2nd round, requiring them to select Choice-1. Candidates who opted not to choose Choice-1 but wished to proceed to the third round of seat allotment had to first cancel their second-round allotment seat, incurring a ₹5,000 penalty.

They could then restart the registration process for the third round. Some students and parents expressed dissatisfaction with the penalty requirement, questioning why KEA had urged them to attend the office personally for seat cancellation instead of providing an online option. A KEA official clarified that the purpose was to prevent seat blocking, yet hundreds of students and parents showed up for the cancellation process.

The KEA has since extended the deadline for seat cancellation in the 2nd round of CET counselling for engineering and other courses to August 29, with the last day for college reporting now set for August 31. They have also extended the deadline for entering choices for admission, from August 28 to August 29. KEA's Executive Director explained that candidates must take admission to the seat allotted to them if they select Choice-1, but those who wish to seek a better seat can participate in the third round by logging into the portal.

Candidates who had entered options for medical and dental courses in the 2nd round and received engineering seats were advised to select Choice-4 if they did not wish those seats. They could still participate in the 2nd round allocation for medical courses. The KEA released the provisional results of the first round of medical and dental course admissions, allotting all 11,875 medical seats and 2,684 dental seats in that round itself.

A total of 478 candidates who secured seats through the Medical Counselling Committee or in other states cancelled their KEA-allotted seats, resulting in vacant seats that were included in the fresh allotment.