Bengaluru,   Girls outshone boys in the Karnataka 2nd PUC exams this year, while overall pass percentage was 61.88 per cent.

The result was announced by the Karnataka Pre-University Examination Board on Saturday.

State Education Minister B.C. Nagesh said girls secured 68.72 per cent while boys 55.22 per cent.

As many as 6,83,563 students have appeared for examinations and 4,22,966 candidates have passed.

The minister stated that the dates for supplementary exams would be announced by the end of this month.

Highest pass percentage in the state was recorded from Dakshina Kannada (88.02) while Chitradugra district registered the lowest pass percentage 49.31.

Shwetha Bhimashankar Bhairagond from Ballary and Madivalara Sahana from Kottur in Ballary district which is considered as the one of the backward districts in the state have got first rank in arts. Both have scored 594 marks out of 600.

Neelu Singh, Akash Das, Maanav Vinay Kejriwal from Bengaluru, Neha B.R. from Chikkaballapur district have got first rank in Commerce stream. All of them got 596 marks. Simran Sesha Rao from Bengaluru has got first rank in Science stream with 598 marks.

The exams were held amid hijab row between April 23 and May 18 in the state. Many students did not appear for examinations protesting denial of permission to wear hijab.