Bengaluru: The number of students eligible for admission to courses through the Common Entrance Test (CET) has decreased compared to last year. Minister for higher education MC Sudhakar attributed this to the reduced pass percentage among II pre-university science students.This year, 2,62,195 students are eligible for engineering courses, compared to over 2.7 lakh last year. Similarly, a little under 2 lakh students are eligible for BNYS (Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences), as against almost 2.2 lakh last year. In BSc (Agri), the number is down more than 20,000 to 1.9 lakh.“The reduction is because the number of students who passed II PU was less than last year. There was a difference of 9,000,” said the minister. In exam 1, in 2024, 2,46,744 students passed in science. This year, the number was 2,31,461.Seat blockingReacting to the seat-blocking scam of CET 2024, Sudhakar said he is yet to go through the chargesheet. “We need to go through the details of the chargesheet. In case we don’t find it satisfactory, we will take legal opinion on what can be done next,” he said.TOI had reported that the chargesheet filed by Malleswaram police states the brokers said colleges weren’t involved. The chargesheet states that even though option entries were made, no students were admitted to these seats. While the accused used the credentials of students who excelled in other exams, they said the students were also unaware of the scam.Janivara controversyThe student who didn’t write the maths paper of CET because he wasn’t permitted to wear the sacred thread (Janivara) received a rank of 2.06 lakh. He secured around 57% marks in the II PU exam. He was given the option of writing the paper again or taking the average of marks of his other papers, and he chose the latter.Spot ranks for those who didn’t enter marksCandidates whose CET 2025 results haven’t been announced because of errors in entering their registration number, will be given an opportunity to upload their marks online starting Monday.Several candidates have submitted representations stating that even though they passed II PUC / class 12 exams, their CET results weren’t published. “It was earlier announced that the II PUC / class 12 marks would be obtained directly from the respective education boards before announcing the CET 2025 results, and candidates were required to enter the correct registration number. However, some failed to enter the correct number, because of which their results couldn’t be processed,” Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) said in a press release.From May 26, an online link will be activated for such candidates to submit their II PU / class 12 marks along with the correct registration number and mark sheet. Once KEA verifies and confirms these marks with the respective boards, the candidates will be issued spot ranks starting May 29. 10 HelplinesThe number of helplines in KEA was increased from five to 10 last year. The call centres will work from 8am to 8pm.