Kolkata, September 17
The new admission rules for IITs will not be applicable to the students appearing in the 2006 examinations. They become applicable from 2007, according to the decision taken by the Joint Admission Council of the IITs at a meeting here today.

Hence, the candidates preparing for the 2005 IIT examinations even for the third time will be now eligible to appear in the next examinations. But the new admission rules, which debar the students from making any attempt more than twice, will be applicable from 2007.

The eligibility marks for appearing in these examinations will be restricted to 60 per cent and above in the school final or ICSC or CBSE examinations.

The directors of all IITs at an emergency meeting today decided to defer the new admission rules till 2007, following large-scale agitations by a large number of students who had been already preparing to sit for the admission test in 2006.

The IIT directors, however, denied that they were yielding to pressure of the aspirant candidates and their guardians. They said had taken the new decisions since they did not want the several thousand students who had been preparing for the 2006 examinations under the existing rules, to be denied another opportunity for building an IIT academic career.

The Human Resource Development Minister, Mr Arjun Singh, expressed satisfaction that the present IIT admission stalemate could have been averted.

He, however, hoped that the new rules which would be implemented from 2007 would serve the interests of the students and the nation as well.

“The UPA government is committed to restoring the autonomy of higher education institutes. One of the first actions of our government was to remove the compulsion of routing contributions through the Bharat Siksha Kosh, which was seen by many as interfering with the autonomy of IITs,” the minister said.

The HRD Ministry had honoured decisions taken by the Council, he said.