Irrespective of the marks scored in their Class XII exams, candidates will be eligible for JEE Advanced for entry into IIT undergraduate programmes if they have simply passed their board examination.
Any student who has passed the Class XII board examination this year will be eligible for the JEE Advanced 2020, irrespective of their marks.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on July 17 said the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have decided to relax the criteria for entry into JEE Advanced.
This exception has been granted in 2020 due to the coronavirus-led lockdown that led to cancellation of board examinations and average marking system being followed for some subjects.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was among the various education boards that cancelled examinations for remaining papers for Class XII students in the wake of the pandemic. The exams were postponed in March once the lockdown was announced to contain the virus spread.
Typically, for admissions to the 23 IITs, students need to qualify the JEE Advanced exam and also need to score either minimum 75 percent in Class XII or be among the top 20 percentile in their board exams.
"Qualified candidates, who have passed class XII examinations, will now be eligible for admissions irrespective of marks obtained," the HRD minister added.Due to the partial cancellation of class XII exams by several Boards, Joint Admission Board (JAB) has decided to relax the eligibility criterion for #JEE (Advanced) 2020 qualified candidates this time. @HRDMinistry @PIB_India @MIB_India @DDNewslive
— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 17, 2020
JEE Main 2020 examination will now be held between September 1-6, JEE Advanced exam will be held on September 27.
JEE Main is the first step for entry into engineering programmes across institutes, including IITs. Once a candidate qualifies in JEE Main, he/she is eligible to apply for JEE Advanced, which is an exam only for entry into IITs.
Here, as the final entry criteria for the undergraduate level engineering programme, the candidate's Class XII board examination scores are looked at.
Close to one million students appear for JEE Main examinations each year. Even this year, about 9,35,000 students have registered for JEE Main 2020. Every year, only about 12,000 seats are available across IITs.