JoSAA Business Rules 2026 PDF Released: Complete Seat Allocation Guidelines

Josaa Business Rules 2026 - New Rules

There have been major changes in the Josaa Business Rules 2026 compared with last year's business rules regarding institution inclusion and rule wording. Some of the major changes are as follows.

• Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru has been included in the joint seat allocation process alongside the IITs.

• Additional rules have been added for the IISc-specific seat allocation.

• The new rules expand preparatory-course rank lists to include more PwD-based categories.

• In case of JoSAA eligibility and category, the 2026 rules have updated their terminology to “OCI/PIO” and explicitly separate OCI/PIO (I) and OCI/PIO (F) usage in the category rules.

• The new business rules have been updated for the foreign-tag rule to cover IITs and IISc together. The new rule states that foreign tag candidates are eligible for supernumerary seats in IITs and IISc.

• The JoSAA business rules 2026 have rewritten the seat-allocation tables to include IISc in the IIT-side allocation logic. However, the seat category system is the same as last year.

• It also gives the seat allotment sequence for NIT System institutes having Home State and All India seats.

• The 2026 document continues the Home State / Other States / All India structure for the NIT+ system, with the same special provisions for NIT Goa, NIT Srinagar, and the listed union territories.

JoSAA Business Rules 2026

The core JoSAA counselling rules remain the same every year. However, there are a few specific rules that can change year-to-year in the JoSAA Business rules. Here are some fundamental rules that remain consistent every year.

Josaa Business Rules 2026: Eligibility

• Candidates must clear the JEE Advanced for admission to IITs and IISc offering programmes.

• For NITs, IIEST, IIITs, Triple-I-Ts, and Schools of Planning and Architecture, candidates must have cleared the JEE Main exam.

• Note that clearing the above-mentioned exam doesn’t guarantee admission.

Josaa Business Rules 2026 Registration and portal

• As per the 2026 business rule, candidates must register through the official JoSAA 2026 online portal to obtain seat allocation through the counselling.

• The JoSAA seat matrix is released along with the academic programme and category-wise intake capacity on the online portal, josaa.nic.in.

• The JoSAA counselling process is conducted entirely online, computer-operated.

JoSAAA Business Rules for Candidate categories

• During the JoSAA seat allocation, candidates are categorised as per their nationality and the presence or absence of disability.

• Candidates are also tagged under different category including GEN, GEN-PwD, GEN-EWS, GEN-EWS-PwD, OBC-NCL, OBC-NCL-PwD, SC, SC-PwD, ST, ST-PwD, and Foreign.

• For IITs and IISc, who are not b

JoSAAA Business Rules: State code of eligibility

• Under the business rules, the authority allocates NIT seats based on the state from where the candidate has first appeared for the Class 12I or equivalent examination.

• Also, for the Indian nationals passing the Class 12 or equivalent examination from an institution abroad, the state code of eligibility will be determined on the basis of the permanent address in India.

JoSAA Business Rules: NIT seat quotas

• For NIT seat allocations, the seats will be divided further into the Home State quota, Other States quota and All India quota for certain institutes.

• For NIT Goa, there are 50 home state quotas, where 80% of the Home State seats are reserved for candidates from Goa, while the remaining 20 per cent are shared by candidates from Daman Diu, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep.

• For NIT Srinagar, there are 50 Home State seats, where 90% are reserved for candidates from JK, while the remaining 10 percent are reserved for eligible candidates of Ladakh.

JoSAAA Business Rules: Female candidates

• JoSAA business rules for female students state that supernumerary seats are reserved for female candidates in the undergraduate programs of all IITs, IISc, NITs, IIEST and some of the IIITs in the Joint Seat Allocation process for 2026.

• Female candidates are eligible for both Gender-Neutral and Female-Only pools.

• The female-only pool is only applicable for the female students; if she fails to get a seat from this pool, she will compete for a seat from the Gender-Neutral pool.

JoSAAA Business Rules: Withdrawal and Exit

• Candidates who are allotted seats can withdraw from the seat allocation process starting from the 2nd round and up to the 4th round.

• Candidates who are not allotted any seats can exit from the seat allocation process starting from the 2nd round and up to the 4th round.