New Delhi: An error of judgment by the authorities at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has cost 52 students the chance to pursue courses at India's most precious engineering institutes, or any other engineering institutes this year.

52 undergraduate students, who had cleared the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) and had been allotted seats at the IITs, were told a day before they were to submit their course fees that their seats have been cancelled. The students were set to study architecture and design courses at the institutes.

According to IIT authorities, the move was taken as these students had not cleared a separate examination for architecture and design, the Architecture/Design Aptitude Test. They said that the selection of these students to the B.Arch and B.Des courses was inadvertent and an error.

The error by the IITs caused a major blow to these students as they have now missed the opportunity to pursue engineering courses at other institutes. This is because the cancellation of their seats by the IITs came at a moment when other engineering colleges offering courses in Architecture and Design through the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) had already ended their admission counseling on July 2.

Many students among the 52 admitted that they had also cleared the AIEEE but had not gone for counseling to other colleges or institutes as they had already been allotted seats at the IITs. These students may now go to court against the IITs' decision to cancel their seats.

The IITs' Joint Admission Board will be sending apologies to each of the 52 students. They would also suggest the candidates to apply in the second round of admission counseling to the institutes that are set to commence on July 16. However, they have clarified that they cannot guarantee that the students would be allotted seats during the second round of counseling.

The students, on the other hand, are not willing to wait for the second round of admission counseling and are planning to approach the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal.

The admission procedure at the IITs for their Architecture and Design courses involves two stages. After clearing the IIT-JEE, candidates then have to appear for a second examination that is subject-specific.

Authorities at IIT have been repeatedly facing flak over the past five years due to their complete lack of transparency regarding their admission procedure as well as the way the Joint Entrance Examination is conducted.