JEE-Advanced: Admission criterion to IITs relaxed by HRD Ministry, Read details

Candidates clearing JEE-Advanced will be eligible for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) irrespective of class 12 marks, Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal said on Friday. The news comes as a huge relief for aspirants wanting to enter India's most prestigious educational institution.

Earlier, for admissions to IITs, apart from qualifying the JEE-Advanced, the eligibility was to secure either minimum score of 75% marks in Class 12 Board exams or rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations.

"Qualified candidates who have passed class XII examinations will now be eligible for admissions irrespective of marks obtained," Pokhriyal said on Twitter.

He attributed the reason for the decision to the fact that exams were partially cancelled by several Boards, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), owing to the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent nationwide lockdown.

READ | NEET, JEE, UGC-NET Exam Application Forms: Deadline For Making Corrections Extended By NTA

READ | IIT Delhi's COVID-19 Test Kit Launched For Commercial Use At Rs 399

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday extended the date for students to make corrections in their application forms of JEE, NEET, UGC NET, IGNOU OPENMAT, PhD, JNUEE, ICAR NET, CSIR- UGC NET and AIAPGET exams from July 15 to July 20.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the official notification by the NTA said that the aspirants can edit the choice of centre cities, photograph and signature till the entered date by visiting the official website of the respective universities. The notification dated as of July 15 also said that the corrections in particulars of the online application form will be accepted up to 5:00 pm and submission of conditional fee up to 11:50 pm.

Class XII results declared

The CBSE announced Class 12 results on Monday after cancelling the remaining examinations owing to Coronavirus pandemic. Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank took to Twitter to announce the declaration of results and congratulated students and parents for making it possible.

Since the exams for Class XII have been kept as 'optional,' students can either choose to sit for remaining papers and wait for the final results, or, apply for higher studies on the marks published by schools based on their last three internal assessment scores. The results of the internal assessment have been published by schools along with the board results. The board decided not to come up with a merit list in view of exceptional circumstances amid the coronavirus pandemic.

READ | IIT Delhi Incubated Startup Launches N95 Masks Decontamination Device, Chakr DeCoV

READ | CBSE Forms Partnership With IBM To Create New Artificial Intelligence (AI) Curriculum