CSAB 2026 vs JAC Delhi – Are They the Same?

A common source of confusion for JEE Main aspirants, especially those based in or targeting colleges in Delhi, is whether CSAB and JAC Delhi are the same process. They are not. CSAB (Central Seat Allocation Board) is the national counselling body that allots leftover seats at NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs (Government Funded Technical Institutes) after JoSAA's main rounds conclude. It operates under the joint oversight structure that runs JoSAA and covers institutes across the entire country.

JAC Delhi (Joint Admission Counselling Delhi), on the other hand, is an entirely independent, Delhi government-run counselling process that allots seats specifically at Delhi's own state-funded engineering institutions — primarily Delhi Technological University (DTU), Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT, including its East and West Delhi campuses), Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW), and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT Delhi). None of these institutes are part of the CSAB seat matrix, and CSAB has no authority or involvement in admissions to any of them.

Why the Confusion Happens

Both processes use your JEE Main rank as the eligibility basis, both typically run in a similar mid-to-late-year window, and DTU/NSUT are extremely popular destinations often discussed in the same breath as NITs in terms of prestige and placement outcomes. This overlap in timing, rank basis, and popularity leads many candidates to assume the two are linked or that one automatically covers the other — which is incorrect.

If DTU, NSUT, or IIIT Delhi are among your target colleges, registering for CSAB alone will not help you — you must separately register on the official JAC Delhi counselling portal, fill a distinct choice list, and go through JAC Delhi's own rounds and reporting process. Likewise, if your target colleges are NITs, IIITs, or GFTIs, JAC Delhi registration is irrelevant to you; CSAB is the correct (and only) route for those seats once JoSAA rounds are done.

Candidates interested in both sets of institutes — which is common, since DTU/NSUT and many NITs are comparable choices — need to register for and actively track both processes independently. The two systems don't share a unified seat-locking mechanism, so carefully track each portal's own deadlines for choice locking, seat acceptance, and reporting to avoid losing an opportunity in either process.