3 min readNew DelhiJun 5, 2026 12:14 PM IST
Students hoping for relief from the 75 per cent Class 12 eligibility requirement for IIT and NIT admissions ran into a wall on Wednesday, as IIT Roorkee categorically ruled out any relaxation in the norm — even as it acknowledged the distress caused by the ongoing CBSE marking controversy and promised to work with the board to resolve matters for affected students.
“No relaxation in marks as candidates from 36 different boards are participating. We published this criterion almost in December, and last year some candidates lost IIT/NIT seats mainly due to percentages. Hence, lowering is not possible,” IIT Roorkee said in a statement to ANI. “However, we are in close touch with CBSE and will try to resolve this for all those affected candidates on priority,” it added.
Under current eligibility rules, candidates seeking admission to IITs through JEE Advanced must either secure at least 75 per cent marks in Class 12 or be among the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in their respective boards. A similar criterion applies for admission to NITs, IIITs, and other centrally funded technical institutions through JEE Main.
The institute’s statement comes as IIT Roorkee serves as the organising body for JEE Advanced 2026, making it the nodal authority for eligibility decisions this admission cycle.
The demand for relaxation gained traction on social media after several students claimed that they had secured competitive ranks in JEE but failed to meet the Class 12 percentage requirement by a narrow margin, allegedly due to evaluation errors and inconsistencies linked to CBSE’s new marking system.
The controversy centres around CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, which was implemented this year for the evaluation of answer sheets and has drawn sharp criticism from both students and examiners who have flagged technical glitches and inconsistencies in how marks were awarded.
Many students have applied for verification of marks, requested photocopies of evaluated answer books and sought re-evaluation, hoping that corrections in their Class 12 scores might restore eligibility for engineering admissions this academic cycle.
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The 75 per cent rule has a fraught history. The requirement was reintroduced after being temporarily relaxed during the pandemic, when it was suspended for three consecutive admission cycles — 2020, 2021, and 2022. Students and parents had cited that precedent in their calls for a one-time exemption this year, arguing that the CBSE marking row represents an equally exceptional circumstance beyond students’ control.
IIT Roorkee’s position, however, is that the multi-board nature of JEE admissions makes any such move impractical and unfair to students from other boards. With 36 education boards participating in the process and the eligibility criterion having been published well in advance in December, the institute has made clear it will not move the goalposts.