JoSAA 2024 Seat Allocation Rule for Reserved Candidates

JoSAA 2024 Seat Allocation Rule for Reserved Candidates:  When it comes to the allocation of seats via JoSAA counselling 2024 for the reserved category candidates, certain rules are followed by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority. Candidates are allotted seats as per their rank in JEE Main or the JEE Advanced exam, choices filled and the availability of seats at the JoSAA participating institutes and their category. In this article, we will take a look at the JoSAA 2024 Seat Allocation Rule for Reserved Candidates.

Latest update: JoSAA Round 4 Seat Allotment released on July 10, 2024

Also read:JoSAA 2024 Seat Distribution for Program Sections

JoSAA 2024 Seat Allocation Rule for DS Candidates

Two supernumerary seats are preferentially allocated in every Institute for the candidates who qualify under the Defence Services (DS) category. In order to avail the benefit of DS category, the candidates are required to submit the Form-DS certificate. A DS candidate must be in the CRL to be eligible for preferential allocation under the DS category. In case the DS candidate is not in the CRL, seat allocation will be conducted as per Clause set by JoSAA. 23 Candidates who are eligible for seat allocation under the DS category will also be considered under their category [viz., GEN, GEN-EWS, OBC NCL, SC, ST, GEN-PwD, GEN-EWS-PwD, OBC-NCL-PwD, SC-PwD, and ST-PwD]. For example, in case a candidate belongs to the OBC-NCL category and is also eligible for admission under the DS category, then the candidate will be considered for seat allocation in an academic programme of an IIT in the following order: first for OPEN seats, followed by OBC-NCL category seats, and then for seats under DS category. 

Also read:JoSAA 2024 Rank Lists

JoSAA 2024 Seat Allocation Rule for Candidates with Foreign Tag  - [Only for IITs]  

 To be considered for the JoSAA seat allocation, foreign tag candidates must be in the CRL and satisfy all the eligibility requirements g]required for a general category candidate. Seat allocation to foreign tag candidates is carried out after the seat allocation of all Indian national candidates is completed in each round. A seat in an academic program will be allotted to a foreign tag candidate in case the candidate’s rank is the same or better than the closing rank of the general category candidate in that academic program. Seats to be allocated to foreign tag candidates will be supernumerary. The total number of supernumerary seats allotted in each IIT for foreign tag candidates is limited to up to 10% of the total number of seats of the respective IIT, Program-wise. 

Candidates must note that admission of foreign tag candidates across NITs, IIEST, IIITs, and Other GFTIs is not in the purview of CSAB and, hence, is not in the purview of JoSAA 2024.

Also read:How Does the JoSAA counselling Process Actually Work?

JoSAA 2024  Supernumerary Allocation Rule For Female Candidates

In accordance with the directions of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, supernumerary seats have been created and offered to female candidates to improve the gender balance in the undergraduate programs at IITs, NITs, IIEST Shibpur, and some of the Triple-I-Ts via Joint Seat Allocation process for 2024-25. Candidates MUST qualify the JEE Main 2024 and JEE Advanced 2024 exams for IITs or JEE Main 2024 for the NIT+System, as applicable. Foreign tag candidates are not eligible for female supernumerary seats or seats in NIT+ system.

The following rules will be followed while allocating supernumerary seats for females. 

• Cut-off [for IITs only]: The qualifying cut-off marks for each program of every IIT will be computed in a gender-oblivious manner.
• Creation of seat matrices for 2024: Candidates can consider any program P (For example, IIT Madras Mechanical Engineering or NIT Surathkal Computer Science & Engineering). There will be two seat pools for P, namely, Gender-Neutral (P) and Female-Only (P). The Female-Only (P) pool includes supernumerary seats, if any. 
• Every IIT must have at least 20% females altogether in its UG program: Non-female candidates will be eligible only for seats from Gender-Neutral (P) pool. Female candidates are eligible for both the pools. However, a female candidate desirous of P, first competes for a seat from Female-Only (P) pool. Only after she fails to get a seat from this pool, she will compete for a seat from Gender-Neutral (P) pool. 
• The seat allocation algorithm ensures the following: 

a. No reduction in the number of available seats for non-female candidates compared to the number of available seats for non-female candidates in 2023: The creation of seat matrices for 2024, the number of seats in 27 Gender-Neutral pool of an institute (e.g., IIT Madras) in 2024 will not be less than the number of seats in the Gender-Neutral pool in that Institute in 2023.

 b. No-adverse effect due to a separate seat pool for female candidates: Female candidates are eligible for a seat from FemaleOnly pool as well as Gender-Neutral pool of a programme. A female candidate will compete for a seat in Gender-Neutral pool only after she fails to get a seat from Female-Only pool. As a result, it is guaranteed that at least one of the following properties will hold.

 i. All seats of a Programme-Section of Gender-Neutral pool are occupied by non-female candidates only.

 ii. The allocation of all the seats of a Programme-Section of Gender-Neutral pool and its Female-Only counterpart combined is done purely based on merit without any gender bias/preference. 

c. For IITs, undergraduate programmes taken together in an institute will have at least 20% females. 

d. For NITs, IIEST Shibpur and some of Triple-I-Ts, individual undergraduate programmes will have at least 20% females.

 e. Under no circumstances would a female candidate be denied a seat in an academic programme while allocating that seat to a non-female candidate with lower rank than her, and satisfying the same eligibility criteria.

• Order of category and gender: While allocating a seat, the category is considered first followed by the gender. For example, considering an OBC-NCL female candidate with a valid general rank and supposing that  she is aspirant of a seat in an academic program P, she will be first considered for a seat from the Female-Only pool of OPEN seats for programme P followed by Gender-Neutral pool of OPEN seats for program P. Thereafter, she will be considered for a seat from the Female-Only pool of 28 OBC-NCL seats for programme P followed by Gender-Neutral pool of OBC-NCL seats for programme P. The justification for the above order is that the candidate is eligible for OPEN seats. Hence, OPEN seat will be allocated to her if eligible based on merit, before her own category. 

JoSAA 2024 Seat Allocation Rule - Important Note

Creation and allocation of supernumerary seats for female candidates is fundamentally different from reservation of seats for female candidates and should not be mistaken for any kind of reservation for females. The following example illustrates this point:

 • Suppose a programme has 80 Gender-Neutral seats and 20 Female-Only seats. Further, let us assume that the top 20 rankers opting for the programme are females and the next 80-rankers opting for the program are non-females. In the current allocation scheme, the top ranking 20 females will first be allocated the 20 Female-Only seats. The non-females will be allocated the 80 Gender-Neutral seats. 

• On the contrary, if the Female-Only seats were following allocation similar or equivalent to “reservations” then the top ranking 20 females would first be allocated the top 20 Gender-Neutral seats first and therefore the remaining 80-20 = 60 Gender-Neutral seats would be allocated to non-females. The remaining 20 Female-Only seats would be then allocated to lower ranked females, thereby not allowing allocation of the program to the remaining (100-80 = 20) higher ranked non-females. 

 Clear separation of Gender-Neutral and Female-Only verticals: Any seat left vacant in Female-Only pool will not be allocated to any nonfemale candidate. FemaleOnly (P) seats are meant for females only and include supernumerary seats that are specifically created for improving gender ratio beyond the actual intake/capacity. Thus, making any Female-Only seats available to non-females is not possible by principle.

Also read:What is Spot Round in JoSAA Counselling 2024?

JoSAA Reservation Policy  2024

The reservation policy as per the Government of India norms as existing at present will be applicable to the two pools of seats as well - Seats in Female-Only (P) pool of a programme will be further split into various Programme sections based on the categories (GEN, GEN-EWS, OBCNCL, SC, ST, GEN-PwD, GEN-EWS-PwD, OBC-NCL-PwD, SC-PwD, STPwD) and state quotas (All India / Home State / Other State, as and where applicable). 

In a similar manner, Gender-Neutral (P) pool will be split into Programme Sections based on the categories and state quotas (as and where applicable). Once the numbers of seats for Female-Only (P) and Gender-Neutral (P) have been computed for an academic programme as, they are distributed among their Programme Sections according to the prevailing business rules as follows:

 • For IITs which have only All India quota, there are ten Programme Sections according to respective categories - GEN, GEN-EWS, OBC NCL, SC, ST, and their PwD counterparts.

 • For NIT+ System Institutes, there are either two types of state quotas i.e. Home State and Other State (or All India and Home State) or only one type of quota i.e. All India quota. Hence, there are maximum 20 Programme Sections defined by the state quota and candidate’s categories for these institutes.

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We hope this article has been helpful for the candidates to be aware of the JoSAA rank lists 2024.