September 1, 2025

For the first time in years, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have admitted more students than their officially approved seats. The Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) report for 2025 reveals a stunning number: while the sanctioned seats across the 23 IITs were 18,160, a total of 18,188 seats were actually allotted in the final round — that means 28 extra students made it in! This thrilling extra admission happened in some of India’s best-known engineering hubs. IIT Bombay admitted 1,364 students, just 4 more than its official 1,360 seats. IIT Delhi welcomed 1,241 against 1,239 capacity, and IIT Kharagpur filled 1,923 seats, beating its quota by 4! IIT Kanpur overshot by 5, with 1,215 students instead of 1,210. Even the famous IIT Madras admitted 1,124 students, 3 more than its 1,121 seats. On the flip side, IIT (BHU) Varanasi admitted one less student than its capacity of 1,589. This trend of “over-admission” comes after a steady growth in IIT seat availability. Last year, there were 17,760 seats, and 17,695 were filled, nearly full. The only time in recent years when every seat was filled perfectly without extra students was 2019. Why the extra seats this year? Experts say the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) system tries hard to leave no seat empty. They give some extra provisional seats to balance late withdrawals and no-shows. As one official explained, this smart juggling act stops premier IITs from having empty slots but sparks a fresh debate: "Is the current infrastructure strong enough for these extra students?" Among the 23 IITs, seven admitted more students than their official limits. IIT Kanpur led with 5 extra admissions, followed closely by IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur with 4 each. IIT Roorkee, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, and IIT Madras exceeded their capacities by 3 each. Smaller institutes like IIT Tirupati and IIT Dharwad surprised with an extra student admission each. When adding special categories—9 seats for Defence Service, 11 for foreign nationals or OCI/PIO students, and 12 under relaxation quotas—the numbers become even more colorful. The government is ready to boost IIT capacity even more. The 2025 Union Budget promises infrastructure to add 6,500 new seats over five years across five newer IITs: Palakkad, Dharwad, Jammu, Bhilai, and Tirupati. Most of these new seats will be for undergraduate programs. Speaking of diversity, female student numbers are inching up. Of the 18,188 admitted students, 3,664 are women, making up 20.15%. Some IITs shine brighter: IIT Tirupati (21.57%), IIT Roorkee (20.50%), and IIT Madras (21.09%) beat the national average, partly thanks to special female quotas. The battle for IIT seats remains fierce! A jaw-dropping 2,58,765 candidates registered for JoSAA 2025, submitting over 33 crore choices. Out of the 51,216 students who passed the JEE (Advanced) this year, 73 lakh choices were locked in the system. So what does this over-admission fiesta mean? For hopeful students, it shows IITs are trying hard to fit as many bright talents as possible. For the institutes, it’s a clear message: these top-notch engineering colleges are running at full throttle — and sometimes even beyond their limits!

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Tags: Iit admissions, Josaa, Student intake, Iit capacity, Engineering seats, Female representation,