In a first, IIT board releases extended merit list of 31,980

New Delhi: As it's been often claimed that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken several first-of-its-kind initiatives, the decision to ask the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to release a supplementary merit list for admission this year is really an unprecedented one.

The reluctant IITs agreed to release supplementary merit list only after Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar intervened into the matter and asked IIT-Kanpur, the organising institute for JEE (Advanced) this year, to release a merit list with an increased number of candidates late on Wednesday night.

The revised list is twice the number of total seats on offer in each discipline and each category -- general as well as reserved categories.

With IIT's Joint Admission Board (JAB) issuing an extended merit list, the total number of candidates clearing IIT-JEE has reached to 31,980, which is an increase of 13,842 seats.

According to an official, the extended merit list was issued following a meeting of the JAB on Thursday. Candidates who have given the JEE (Advanced) 2018 test can check the official website, jeeadv.ac.in, for the new merit list.

"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.

Earlier in the day, the HRD ministry for the first time issued directions to the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) to release a supplementary merit list for admission this year.

The institute was asked to release the supplementary merit list before choice-filling for joint seat allocation for IITs and NITs begins this week.

"Responding to requests from students and the IIT community to pro-actively ensure that all reserved 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," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted on Thursday morning.