The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Advanced scheduled for July 3 has been postponed in view of the Covid-19 situation, according to officials at IIT-Kharagpur, the institute which is conducting the exam this year.

The exam is conducted for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology.

"Considering the prevailing pandemic situation due to Covid-19, JEE (Advanced) 2021 which was scheduled to be held on July 3 stands postponed. The revised date of examination will be announced at an appropriate time," an official said.

For the JEE-Advanced, the JEE-Mains is considered as a qualifying exam and it is conducted for admission to engineering colleges across the country.

For admissions to IITs, apart from qualifying the JEE-Advanced, candidates are required to secure either minimum 75 per cent marks in their class 12 board exams or a rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations.

The requirement pertaining to class 12 scores has been waived in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

From this year, the JEE-Mains is being conducted four times a year to offer flexibility to students and a chance to improve their scores.

While the first phase was conducted in February followed by the second phase in March, the next phases were scheduled to be held in April and May.

The April and May editions were postponed too after an exponential rise in Covid cases during the pandemic's second wave.

Over 6.2 lakh candidates appeared in the first session, while 5.5 lakh candidates appeared in the second session of the exam.

As per a policy, after the February, March, April and May sessions of JEE-Mains-2021, the ranks of candidates will be released taking into consideration the best of their four scores.