Maharashtra sets up panel to factor Class 12 marks in engineering admissions

The committee will be headed by Prof. Ravindra Kulkarni, vice-chancellor of Mumbai University who also chairs Maharashtra State Academic and Research Council.

The Maharashtra government on Thursday set up a committee to recommend a framework for factoring Class 12 marks into admissions for undergraduate engineering and pharmacy programmes, rather than relying solely on marks from the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET).

Navi Mumbai, India - Sept. 10, 2026:Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis along with various schools students of Navi Mumbai take part during Eco Friendly Maha Ganpati workshop on September 10. (HT FILE PHOTO/Bachchan Kumar)

The decision comes against the backdrop of repeated allegations of malpractice in the entrance exam.

“An expert committee is hereby constituted as follows to formulate a policy for preparing the merit list for admission to undergraduate professional courses in Engineering and Pharmacy, by taking into consideration the MHT-CET percentile and the percentage of marks obtained in the Class 12 examination,” the state’s Higher and Technical Education Department said in a government order.

The committee will be headed by Prof. Ravindra D. Kulkarni, the vice-chancellor of Mumbai University who also chairs the Maharashtra State Academic and Research Council.

The committee will also have vice-chancellors of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University and COEP Technological University (Pune) as members, along with the director of higher education department. The director of technical education department will serve as member-secretary.

A government official said the objective behind the proposed change was to balance Class 12 results with the entrance exam and make the process transparent and equitable.

Under current rules, Class 12 scores carry no weight in final admissions once minimum eligibility is met, leading many students to bypass classroom learning in favour of coaching centres. Concerns escalated this year after several candidates with just 40–50% in their board exams scored exceptionally high percentiles in the entrance test, raising suspicions of paper leaks.

The government’s State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell Commissioner, mandated to conduct entrance tests for professional courses, recommended forming an expert committee in its proposal to the government on September 2.

It reasoned that the current system of granting admissions based on MHT-CET scores leaves room for lingering suspicion among students and parents, even when there are no anomalies in the results.Also, it led some students to not focus on the Class 12 school leaving exam.

Last Sunday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a forensic audit of all MHT-CET examination centres against which complaints have been received and directed the police to register FIRs after a delegation of teachers and students met him in Mumbai.

“All examination centres against which complaints have been received will undergo a forensic audit. FIRs will be registered based on all the complaints raised by the teachers, and the matter will be investigated through the Joint Commissioner of Police,” Fadnavis said on September 13.