India, Oct. 14 -- More than 12,000 IIT aspirants have petitioned the union education ministry, IIT Council and Joint Admission Board for increasing the number of attempts for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Advanced from two to three. They have also proposed allowing two attempts over three consecutive years instead of the current two-year limit.

The students said that the existing rules prevented many candidates who were capable of doing better in the next attempt from securing admission to the IITs. They argued that health issues, stress or emergencies could affect performance in an exam that played a crucial role in their academic future, and urged the authorities to increase the number of attempts granted. The demand has gained ...