Karnataka Bans IIT, NIT, IISc Students from CET Counselling to Cut Seat Block

In a major effort to promote justice in the process of admission in colleges, Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has resolved to prevent students who already have admissions in top colleges such as IITs, NITs, or IISc from applying for the CET counselling for state engineering seats.

This firm action comes after the revelation of serious abuse of student information in the CET 2024 counselling process. Several students reported that their login credentials were used without their consent to block engineering seats. Amazingly, these students were also already admitted into premier national institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

According to KEA officials, 53 students had approached the authority last year claiming they hadn’t made any college or course choices during counselling, yet seats were still allotted in their names. A deeper probe revealed that five of these students had already joined IITs or NITs, indicating a deliberate pattern of seat blocking.

Even more concerning was the finding that the IP addresses of over 2,000 candidates had been misused, raising serious questions about digital security and potential manipulation.

To prevent such incidents, KEA is introducing stricter rules for CET 2025 counselling.

“We are going to request central agencies to share details of students who have already joined IITs and NITs. Once they are confirmed there, we will not allow them to take part in CET counselling,” said H. Prasanna, Executive Director of KEA.

While KEA already manages NEET counselling and has access to data on students joining medical and dental colleges, it is now seeking updated information from the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the JEE, to monitor engineering admissions.

“JEE counselling happens around June and July, but our CET process runs till September or October. So we’ll have time to compare records and stop ineligible students,” Prasanna added.

To enhance the safety and transparency of the CET 2025 counselling process, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) is introducing new identity verification measures. One of the key initiatives is the Facial Tagging System, where every student must collect a confirmation slip from KEA, visit the allotted college in person, verify their identity by showing their face and entering an OTP, and then receive the admission ticket from the principal. Additionally, students will now be required to make a payment before option entry, which ensures that KEA can trace students through their bank details in case of any misuse. To further tighten security, KEA is also setting up a Special Monitoring Cell dedicated to identifying and tracking students involved in seat blocking. This team will also monitor applications in related courses, such as nursing, which are sometimes misused in similar scams.

KEA believes these initiatives will make the admission process fairer and more secure for all students. By keeping students with confirmed seats in premier institutions out of CET, KEA seeks to prevent abuse and ensure worthy candidates do not miss out.

This ruling is expected to lower the number of empty seats, improve transparency, and restore confidence among students and parents.