MUMBAI: In the joint seat allocation process for admissions to IITs and NITs next year, the authority may allow admission withdrawal option once at the end of the second round. If recommendations made to the Joint Admission Board (JAB) are accepted, the process will undergo a few changes in 2016. Among others, the admission committee has also suggested that seats vacant in any course in IITs should be carried forward for admissions to the first year BTech programme the following year. This will mean, if three of the 110 seats are vacant in BTech computer science programme at IIT-Bombay this year for any reason, 113 seats will be made available for students in 2016. The recommendations were submitted in their final admission report submitted to the board last month. An official said that the joint seat allocation process was quite successful this year for IITs as less than 50 seats were vacant at the end of it. “But if all seats need to be filled in IITs and NITs, then we need to hold more rounds. For this, we will have to start the process early,” he said. This year, IITs carried out three rounds of admissions, while NITs had four. The admission process, however, could start only on July 1 after the CBSE submitted the Class XII scores of over 45 higher secondary education boards. “If 4-5 rounds are conducted, there is a possibility that all seats will be full. We also need to give students at least 1 to 2 weeks between the last admission date and the joining date to ensure they get enough time to reach their respective campuses,” said the official. Students this year also complained that there was no option to withdraw admission in the joint seat allocation process. While officials said seats were allotted to students on the basis of merit and their choices, students claimed that they were stuck with an unwanted seat once they made a wrong choice. “Giving withdrawal option after every round will complicate the process. So we suggested that students can be allowed to withdraw admission once at the end of the second round,” said the official. Devang Khakhar, director of IIT-Bombay who was co-chairman of JoSAA 2015, confirmed suggestions were made to the admission board but are yet to be accepted. IIT-Guwahati will represent IITs in JoSAA 2016 along with an NIT.