The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has decided to allot seats under general merit in the first round of Common Entrance Test (CET-2026) counselling if there are no eligible candidates for the seats reserved under the special quota. This includes sports, ex-servicemen and other quotas for admission to engineering and other professional from the upcoming academic year.
The KEA has launched the CET examination process for the academic year 2026-27 and has already allowed the submission of applications online.
Including constitutional based reservations, seats are also allotted under special quotas including Sports, Ex-Servicemen, Person with Disabilities (PwD), National Service Scheme (NSS), National Cadet Corps (NCC), Scouts and Guides.
However, due to the non-availability of eligible candidates, special quota seats remain unallotted in the first and second rounds of CET counselling. Thus, of the total 5,106 seats available under the Sports, Disabled, and Ex-Servicemen quota in 2025-26, only 591 seats were filled and 4,515 seats remained vacant.
Till now, the seats under various quotas that remained unfilled after the first round of seat allotment were considered for the second or third round. The remaining seats were converted into general merit and allotted in the stray vacancy rounds.
However, in this case, a person with a low rank in CET would get a seat in a good college and a candidate with a better rank would miss out.
To prevent such cases , KEA has decided to convert the seats that remain unallotted in the first round under special quotas into general merit seats and allocate them in the same round.
“Every year, a lot of seats allotted under special quotas remain unfilled. After verifying the documents submitted for the CET exam, exact information is available about the number of people who have applied for which quota seats. Therefore, after the results are declared, it has been decided to convert the remaining seats into general merit and distribute them. This will ensure that meritorious students get seats for their desired courses in the colleges of their choice,” said H. Prasanna, Executive Director of KEA.
Unfilled quota seats
As per the new rules, those seeking admission under the sports quota must have participated in two national or international sports events between classes 10 and 12. However, most students do not participate in sports events as they focus on their studies in classes 10 and 12. The number of high school and Pre-University (PU) students in the State who have achieved success in national and international sports is very less.
In 2025-26, of the total 304 seats available under the sports quota, only 92 seats were filled, leaving 212 seats vacant.
Every year during CET counselling, the seats under the PwD quota remain vacant the most. This year, of the total 4,681 seats available under this quota, 464 seats were filled, leaving 4,217 seats vacant.
Of the 121 seats available under the ex-servicemen quota, 35 seats were filled, leaving 86 seats vacant.
“For the Scout and Guides, NCC and NSS quotas, candidates have to clear a separate examination conducted by the Union government. But since these examinations are not conducted regularly every year, the seats reserved under these quotas are not being filled,” said KEA sources.
Published – January 18, 2026 09:50 pm IST
