Following the HRD Ministry directive that no seat should go vacant, the IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB) on Thursday issued an extended merit list of the JEE (Advanced) qualifiers.
Originally, 18,138 candidates had cleared the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) as per the results declared on June 10.
The decision to increase the number of eligible candidates across categories was taken after the intervention of Human Resource Development Ministry which raised concerns over the possibility of seats going vacant.
"There was a worry that we may not be able to fill all the seats, This time we have reserved seats for women candidates also. There are more seats and less number of eligible candidates as compared to the last year," IIT Delhi Director V. Ramgopal Rao told IANS.
He said the ministry wanted to have at least twice the number of candidates in each category.
"Right now, the general seats, we may be able to fill up. But in reserved categories we may not be able to, hence the decision," Rao said.
As per the merit list announced on Sunday, 8,794, 3,140, 4,709, and 1,495 candidates had qualified in the General, OBC, SC, and ST categories.
The extended merit list added 8,954, 3,824, 771, and 293 candidates in the respective categories, taking the total number of eligible candidates to 31,980.
The choice filing on the Joint Seat Allocation Authority would start on June 15 and will conclude on June 25. The first seat allocation round will be held on June 27. There will be seven rounds of seats allocation in all with the last one will be held on July 18.
--IANS
vn/vd
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)