NEET fiasco: Karnataka to be first to go ahead with CET counselling

During the upgradation, the full fee will be refunded to the students who give up the engineering seat and enroll in the medical courses. | Photo credit: FILE PHOTO

Following the National Eligibility Test (NEET-2026) paper leak fiasco, the Karnataka government has decided to hold Common Entrance Test (CET) counseling this year first for engineering and other related courses. Earlier CET and NEET counseling was conducted simultaneously.

This year, counseling for eight courses including engineering will be held first based on CET rank and counseling for medical, dental and AYUSH courses will be held later based on NEET rank later.

Besides, it was also decided to allow candidates of all streams, including medical and engineering, to advance up to the third round of CET counseling at a meeting on Thursday with managements of private professional colleges and officials of the higher education and medical education department headed by higher education minister MC Sudhakar.

Dr. Sudhakar told The Hindu, “This time NEET will be held on June 21 and the results are likely to be declared by the end of July. After that, the Medical Counseling Committee (MCC) will announce the NEET counseling schedule. It will not be possible to conduct NEET and CET counseling simultaneously. Besides, thousands of students from other states will participate in COMED-K counseling.”

Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra also conduct counseling earlier for engineering and other professional courses, he added.

“Earlier, even though CET and NEET counseling were held simultaneously, students were allowed to upgrade their courses up to the second round. However, it takes at least 30 to 40 days to complete one round of counseling. Hence, we have decided to allow upgradation up to the third round for candidates of all admitted courses, including medical, dental, AYUSH and engineering. For example, if a medical candidate gets a good seat in medicine. in NEET counseling then promotion will be allowed this candidate and engineering candidates for this post which will remain vacant,” he added.

Refund of fee

Further, the minister said that students who give up the engineering seat and enroll in medical courses will be refunded the entire fee during the upgradation. “Besides, the colleges have also agreed to pay a fee to students who get upgraded to engineering seats that remain vacant from students who have joined medical courses,” he explained.

“Due to the delay in NEET, 10% students will exchange their engineering and medical seats. It has been proposed to give free exit to these students. All the professional associations of the colleges have unanimously agreed to this,” said Dr. Sudhakar.

Prasanna. H., Executive Director, Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), requested that the seat matrix of courses based on CET rank, including engineering, be provided soon. Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil and others attended the meeting.

Published – 21 May 2026 20:41 IST