Maharashtra CET Cell Files Police Complaint Over Viral Videos On MHT CET Results

The Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (CET) cell has filed a complaint with the Azad Maidan police and the state cyber police in Mumbai following the circulation of viral social media videos that question the credibility of the MHT-CET results and the provisional engineering merit list. The CET cell requested a police probe to establish the authenticity of the claims made in the videos.

The circulating videos compare Class 12 physics, chemistry, and mathematics (PCM) marks with MHT-CET and JEE scores, alleging that several students who received low Class 12 marks secured 99 or even 100 percentile in the state entrance test. One video features an audio clip claiming that candidates could secure high MHT-CET scores by paying money and selecting specific examination centres.

According to the provisional engineering merit list published on Sunday, 202 candidates scored above the 97 percentile in the MHT-CET despite securing less than 50% marks in Class 12 PCM, including two candidates who achieved a perfect 100 percentile. In comparison, a similar analysis of JEE results found only one candidate with less than 50% PCM marks scoring above 97 percentile.

CET Cell commissioner Dilip Sardesai countered the allegations, stating that the data in the videos does not reflect the full picture. Sardesai emphasized that direct comparisons between Class 12 marks and MHT-CET scores are not valid due to differences in syllabi, question patterns, and evaluation methods.

Providing a breakdown of the results, Sardesai noted that among students scoring 75% to 85% in Class 12 PCM, 10 achieved a 100 percentile and 1,450 scored between 99 and 100 percentile. By comparison, only five students with 50% to 60% marks and two with 40% to 50% marks achieved a 100 percentile score. Furthermore, 68 students with 50% to 60% marks and 61 students with 40% to 50% marks scored between 99 and 100 percentile. An analysis of examination centres showed that larger centres recorded higher numbers of top scorers simply because they hosted more total candidates.

The CET cell also clarified that out of 4,64,309 candidates who took the MHT-CET, 2,35,119 applied for the Centralised Admission Process (CAP), while 2,29,190 did not participate. Sardesai described this as a regular trend resulting from students opting for national institutes or alternative courses. Meanwhile, the CET cell has rolled back a recent increase in the engineering seat acceptance fee for betterment rounds, retaining the standard one-time fee of ₹1,000.