Govt set to introduce common counselling for IITs and NITs

The government is set to introduce common counselling for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) from the coming academic session 2015-16.

The government is set to introduce common counselling for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) from the coming academic session 2015-16. The decision came after a technical committee appointed by the HRD ministry recommended the same.

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The Delhi high court in October had directed the ministry to resolve the issue of common counselling after it came to it through a PIL by Rajiv Kumar, an IIT Kharagpur professor.

“The decision will address the issue of vacant seats in many IITs. Common counselling will do away with the practice of students holding on to seats in two or more institutions at the same,” an official told HT.

In the past there have been cases of students getting seats in an IIT and also NITs in a popular course. Such students hold on to both the seats for a long time and switch only in the end, leaving many seats vacant.

Last year more than 200 seats in IITs were left vacant.

“It is rather intriguing to know that the IITs and NITs, which are providing consultancy to others on technical matters, are unable to themselves find a solution for synchronising admissions to eliminate or at least minimise the issue of vacant seats,” stated the bench.

The court also said that the filling up of vacant seats could not be at the cost of maintaining standards of education and merit in IITs.