MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (CET) cell has filed a complaint with the Azad Maidan police and state cyber police after videos circulating on social media raised questions about the credibility of the MHT-CET results and the provisional engineering merit list. The CET cell has also urged the police to investigate the authenticity of the claims made in the videos.
Event Context
Meanwhile, the CET cell has rolled back the increase in the engineering seat acceptance fee for betterment rounds. The CET cell had raised the fees to discourage seat blocking and speed up admissions. However, the one-time fee of ₹1,000 will continue.
Match Outlook
The videos compare Class 12 physics, chemistry and mathematics (PCM) marks with MHT-CET and JEE scores. They claim that several students who scored low marks in Class 12 secured 99 or even 100 percentile in the MHT-CET. One of the videos also includes an audio clip, which alleges that students could secure high MHT-CET scores by paying money and choosing specific examination centres.
The MHT-CET is a state-level common entrance test for various professional courses, most notably engineering, pharmacy and agriculture. The provisional engineering merit list published by the CET cell on Sunday shows that 202 candidates scored above 97 percentile in the MHT-CET despite securing less than 50% marks in Class 12 PCM, including two candidates who secured a perfect 100 percentile. However, a similar comparison with JEE results found only one candidate with less than 50% PCM marks scoring above 97 percentile.
CET Cell commissioner Dilip Sardesai said, “The data presented in the videos does not reflect the complete picture. Only a small number of students with relatively low Class 12 marks secured very high percentiles in the entrance test. Among students scoring 75-85% in Class 12 PCM, 10 secured 100 percentile and 1,450 scored between 99 and 100 percentile. In comparison, only five students with 50-60% marks and two students with 40-50% marks secured 100 percentile. Similarly, only 68 students with 50-60% marks and 61 students with 40-50% marks scored between 99 and 100 percentile.”
Sardesai said a direct comparison between Class 12 marks and MHT-CET scores is not appropriate because the two examinations have different syllabi, question patterns and evaluation methods. He added that the CET cell also analysed examination centres with the highest number of top scorers. The analysis showed that the largest centres naturally had the highest number of high-scoring students because they also had the highest number of candidates taking the examination.
The CET cell also clarified doubts regarding candidates who did not participate in the engineering admission process. Of the 4,64,309 students who took the MHT-CET, only 2,35,119 applied for the Centralised Admission Process (CAP), while 2,29,190 did not. Sardesai said this is a regular trend as many students choose admissions through IITs, NITs, other national institutes or different courses.
