IIT's extended merit list for JEE Advanced to benefit 14,000 students

The extended merit list added 8,954 candidates in general, 3,824 in OBC, 771 in SC, and 293 in ST categories -- a total of 31,980 eligible candidates across categories

Following a direction from the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) has released an extended merit list with 31,980 candidates, instead of the 18,138 who had earlier been declared as qualified for JEE Advanced-entrance test on June 10. The direction by the HRD ministry, issued late on Wednesday night, clearly said that a supplementary list should be published with twice the number of total seats on offer in each discipline and each category -- general as well reserved ones. The HRD ministry direction will benefit close to 14,000 more students as they were included in the JEE-advanced merit list. The candidates could check the extended merit list for IIT JEE Advanced-entrance test on jeeadv.ac.in  or click here.

The extended merit list was issued following a meeting of IITs' Joint Admission Board (JAB) on Thursday.

"Choice filling on JoSAA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority) would be started on 15th June as scheduled earlier. Students in the extended merit list can start filling up their options along with others," an official statement said.
 
Why HRD ministry asked IITs to release a supplementary list

The number of candidates who qualified the exam has always been at least twice the number of seats on offer. This year, however, the 18,138 students on the merit list are only 1.6 times the total seats, making it the smallest number of qualified candidates since 2012.

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.

"Responding to requests from students and IIT community to proactively ensure that all reservation seats are duly filled, I have directed @IIT Kanpur conducting JEE advanced to make available candidates, strictly as per merit, twice the number of seats in each category," Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted.
 

 


"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.
 

Revised merit list

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.