The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) Chairman revealed that even after the seventh round of seat allocation, there will still be some seats going vacant this year. “Around 50 seats in IITs across the country might go vacant, which is lesser than last year’s 76,” said Professor Prem Bisht, Chairman of JoSAA to PaGaLGuY.

However, the official number of vacant IIT seats is yet to release on the JoSAA website. “IITs are presently counting the number of final vacant seats and we will get to know the exact number soon,” added Bisht. 

In order to fill all the IIT seats this year, JoSAA had increased the number of seat allotment rounds to seven, from last year’s six. However, this year after the sixth round seat allocation, the number of vacant seats in IITs shot high as many students withdrew the seats that they were ‘floating’. “If the students withdraw their seats by the sixth round, they not only get the money paid for accepting the seat, they are allowed to take JEE next year as well. Students, who were waiting for other options in which they applied for, waited till the sixth round and thus the number jumped up after the sixth round,” Bisht explained.

This year, the vacant seats shot as high as 460 in IITs across the country after the conclusion of sixth round.

However, candidates are not allowed to withdraw their seats after the seventh round, making sure the seats already taken up by the candidates doesn’t go vacant.

Apart from withdrawing in the sixth round, the seats go vacant because there are many candidates who opt for dual reporting. “If a candidate is allotted a seat in NIT in any round and in any IIT in the other rounds, they need to report once again for document verification and seat acceptance at a reporting centre of IITs. This year, around 390 such candidates were there who had opted for dual reporting and did not know that they have to report once again,” added Bisht.

Another reason for vacant seats in IITs after seven rounds of counselling can be said to be the hometown preference of some candidates. “Most of the students are very young and there are options of newer IITs for them as well. They tend to choose the ones near their hometown, in some cases, resulting in a vacant seat. Quite a few other institutes also use JEE merit list, resulting in more vacancies,” concluded Bisht.