The Indian Institutes of Technology on Tuesday decided to give an additional attempt next year to the candidates who could not appear in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced this year because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Joint Admission Board (JAB), the body comprising directors of all IITs as members, held a meeting and decided to give this relaxation as a one-time measure, a press statement issued by IIT Delhi, the organising institute, said.

This year, 1.6 lakh candidates had registered for Joint Entrance Examination Advanced, while 1.51 lakh appeared for the exam.

JEE Advanced is the second round test conducted by the IITs for selecting candidates for admission into BTech courses.

The top 2.5 lakh scorers in JEE Main are eligible to take the JEE Advanced. A student gets two chances to take the JEE Advanced and six chances to appear in JEE Main.

“It has been decided to allow all the candidates, who had successfully registered to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2020 but were absent in the exam, to appear in JEE (Advanced) 2021, as a one-time measure,” the release said.

These 9,000 candidates will not be required to qualify for JEE Main next year.

In addition, the usual 2.5 lakh top scorers in JEE Main will be eligible to take the JEE Advanced too.