IIT reforms leave problems of vacant seats unaddressed

Updated on: Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The reforms initiated by Joint Admission Board (JAB) of IIT for prestigious Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) have glossed over a couple of key issues.

Many seats remain vacant and some students are denied second attempt to appear in JEE since they deposited a part of admission fee, but did not join as the course offered was not of their choice. Seats are vacant in IITs due to two reasons. Some students reserve seats by paying a part of their admission fee and then don't join the institute. While, there is another category who discontinue after taking admission.

In 2008-09 there was vacancy in general category seats across IITs. In IIT-Bombay it was eight, followed by IIT Delhi (2), IIT Guwahati (16), IIT-Kanpur (9), IIT-Kharagpur (47), and IIT-Roorkee (74).

IIT sources say this data does not include seats, which remain vacant due to withdrawal during mid-semester, which are significant in some institutes. Data also does not include vacant seats in IIT-BHU and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

IITs partly addressed this issue from the academic session 2009-10 by introducing a second round of admission for these vacant seats, yet many are still lying vacant. IITs do not publish data regarding filled and vacant seats. This resulted in a severe indictment of IIT admission policy in April by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Disposing of one IIT admission case, Andhra Pradesh HC had observed that a good number of seats remained vacant, which when compared with the total intake, represents 8% of the sanctioned strength.

IITs started a third round of admission this year, but still a policy has not evolved to fill seats that remain vacant after a student opts out, despite paying a partial admission fee. Simultaneously, students, who pay fee but do not join, are not allowed to take admission. A student can appear twice for JEE, but is not allowed to make a second attempt if he paid admission fee to get into the merit list in the first attempt.

This resulted in a peculiar case of one student Sujeet Chaudhury, who deposited the admission fee for a seat in IIT-Roorkee in 2010 but did not join as he decided to take another attempt in 2011. He was barred from taking a second attempt. But Allahabad High Court allowed him to sit for JEE. Sujeet's rank improved to 300, and he was eligible to take admission in electrical engineering in IIT-Delhi. IITs refused to give him admission on the ground that he deposited fee in the last academic session. The Allahabad HC gave an interim order, asking IITs to call Sujeet for provisional counseling till the final order comes. IIT-Kanpur that conducted JEE-2011 went to the Supreme Court against the HC's interim order. The apex court set aside the HC order, but said an additional seat be created for Sujeet in IIT-Delhi, and allot it to him if the court's final order is in his favour.

Times of India

IIT reforms leave problems of vacant seats unaddressed

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