The number of vacant seats in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) during the ongoing process of seat allocation has seen an increase. 

The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) in an earlier statement had said that after the first round, about 78 seats in NITs – Jalandhar, Mizoram, Sikkim, Calicut, and Nagaland were vacant. This number has now increased to 136 after the second round. The list of NITs with vacant seats now includes Agartala and Puducherry. A seat is declared vacant if a candidate who has been allotted the seat does not report to accept it. 

 It is important to note that all vacant seats are from the ‘Home State’ category. ‘Home state’ of a candidate is defined as the state from which he/she has passed Class 12 (or equivalent) examination. 

About home state seats being vacant, Prof K V Krishna, Chairman, JEE Advanced, said, “Many reasons can be attributed to these seats remaining vacant. One could be that there are not enough candidates. Other reason could be candidates do not want the seats which have been allotted to them.”

Krishna added, “When it comes to vacant seats in other categories like persons with disability (PwD), there is a policy of de-reserving these seats to accommodate students. But as of now no such policy is in place for the home state category.”