Explainer: What is Karnataka's 'seat blocking scam' in engineering courses?

The alleged scam has once again raised concerns over providing merit-based admissions in engineering courses without compromising the chances of deserving students.

Moreover, allegations have surfaced that the CET results were delayed to reportedly give time for private engineering colleges, including New Horizon Engineering College and BMS Engineering College, to manipulate admissions.

The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), which conducts the exam, has also come under scrutiny over their possible complicity in these seat blocking practices. For it is alleged that by delaying the CET results this year, the KEA allegedly created opportunities for private engineering colleges to engage in this scam and affected the chances of meritorious students seeking engineering admissions.

So, what is this seat blocking scam rocking Karnataka?

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Firstly, what is the CET?

The Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET) is an exam conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) for admission to various professional courses, including engineering. Each year, the CET ranking is used to allocate seats in government and private engineering colleges based on a candidate’s performance.

CET is conducted for several courses, including architecture, engineering, BTech, BSc (agriculture), BSc (sericulture), BSc (horticulture), BSc (forestry), BTech (biotechnology), BSc (community science), BTech (agricultural engineering), BTech (food technology), BTech (dairy technology), BFSc (fisheries), BVSc & A.H (veterinary science and animal husbandry), BPharm, and Pharm-D.

How are seats allocated to students?

The CET Act was amended in 2006, outlining an agreement on seat allocation among the government and private engineering colleges. According to this agreement, the government receives 45 per cent of the seats, COMED-K (private colleges) 30 per cent, and the management boards 25 per cent. Seats remaining after the extended second round are returned to private colleges.

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What first raised suspicions about seat blocking?

In 2024, 1,11,294 seats were available for CET allocation. Out of these, 95,290 seats were allotted based on ranking and agreements betwee government and private colleges, while 16,004 seats, which included 13,089 engineering seats, remained vacant. Meanwhile, the KEA issued notices to about 2,600 students after noticing that they had blocked the seats but did not end up paying the fees. This created a suspicion that seat blocking was probably taking place to help private colleges.

The KEA allocates seats based on rankings, with candidates choosing colleges according to their preference. In the 2024 CET, candidates with high ranks reserved seats in prestigious engineering colleges but refrained from completing the admission, leaving those seats vacant until the final round. The government then returned these vacant seats to private colleges, where they were allegedly resold at high prices through the management quota, depriving deserving students of opportunities.

These seats belong to some top institutions such as BMS College of Engineering and New Horizon College of Engineering in Bengaluru where the seats under management quota for Computer Science and allied branches go for Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh each.

Former Chief Minister Veerappa Moily, the person who brought CET first in Karnataka when he was the education minister told 'The Federal Karnataka' that CET enabled many students to choose their preferred college. However, he had no ‘specific information’ on the recent seat-blocking allegations.

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How the scam came to light?

The KEA noticed unusually high vacancies in popular courses like Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Investigations revealed that approximately 2,600 students used the same IP address and fake mobile numbers for seat blocking. Further investigations allegedly implicated private colleges such as New Horizon Engineering College and BMS Engineering College in the scam.

What the government said?

Higher education minister Dr MC Sudhakar told the media that “irregularities” had occurred in Bengaluru's New Horizon Engineering College and BMS Engineering College.

“A preliminary investigation uncovered that multiple students utilised the same IP address for seat selection, and the mobile numbers provided were either fake or incorrect. Notably, these activities were restricted to two engineering institutions: New Horizon College of Engineering and BMS College of Engineeriņg," he said̤.

Meanwhile, the KEA executive director, H Prasanna, has announced that students found guilty of seat blocking may face a four-year ban from admission to any engineering or medical college in Karnataka.

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Has this happened before?

Last year, the KEA barred 12 students from counselling due to seat-blocking suspicions. A subsequent investigation found that 40 government-quota seats at New Horizon Engineering College were shifted to the management quota, which was considered to be a significant violation.

Has government launched an investigation into the scam?

In response to suspicions of private colleges’ involvement, the higher education department has set up a committee, chaired by a retired vice-chancellor of Belgaum Technical University, to investigate the alleged scam. The committee includes KEA officials, representatives from the department of technicaleEducation, and Visvesvaraya Technological University faculty.
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The government is considering amending its agreement with private engineering colleges to prevent the rampant misuse of government-quota seats by converting them into management-quota seats, thus depriving deserving students of opportunities.

AAP alleged CET's involvement

The Aam Aadmi Party alleged that delaying the CET results has enabled private colleges to profit from the scam. Experts are pointing out that if institutions like VTU, which uses modern technology, can publish results within three hours, why the CET delayed in publishing the results in the first place.