AKTU Grace Marks

The phrase “grace marks” appears exactly twice in the B.Tech Ordinance 2018-19 (Revised), in force since session 2018-19 and still the version AKTU links as of September 2026, and both times it is a condition for the top two divisions, not a rule that hands marks out. Clause 16.1(a), on the Honours degree, requires a student to have “passed each subject of that degree program in single attempt without any grace marks, without any gap.” Clause 16.1(b), on Distinction, uses almost the same wording: “passed each subject of that degree program in single attempt without any grace marks and without any gap.”

Neither clause defines what a grace mark is, how many can be awarded, which subjects qualify or who decides. The ordinance treats grace marks as something that can happen to a student’s record, which then disqualifies them from Honours or Distinction, without setting out the mechanism that produces it in the first place. For most students, the practical question is not what a grace mark is worth in isolation, but whether one was applied to their record at all, since that single fact decides whether Honours or Distinction stays on the table once the CGPA and attempt conditions are otherwise met.

The closest thing to an official adjustment process in the ordinance is moderation, covered under clause 14.3, and it is worth being clear that this is a different mechanism from whatever produces the grace marks mentioned at clause 16.1. Clause 14.3(a) states: “The University has right to scale/moderate the theory exam/practical exam/sessional marks of any subject whenever required for converting of marks in to letter grades on the basis of the result statistics of university as in usual practice.”

This is a subject-wide adjustment, not an individual one. Clause 14.3(b) says the modality for moderation before a result is declared is decided by a committee of the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dean UG, Associate Dean UG and Controller of Examination. Clause 14.3(c) adds an external member, not below the rank of Professor, if moderation is needed after a result has already gone out. Moderation adjusts an entire subject’s marks based on how the whole cohort performed. It is not the same claim as an individual student receiving a grace mark to cross a pass threshold, even though the two ideas get confused in practice.

We checked AKTU’s circular archive for anything naming a grace-marks rule directly, and found three. A circular dated 30 June 2020, titled Regarding Grace Rule for Students Admitted under CBCS system from Academic Session 2016-17 and onwards, confirms that a grace rule already applied to one batch was extended, by an Academic Council decision, to cover the 2018-19 AICTE Model Curriculum batch as well. This tells us a grace rule exists and has been extended across cohorts, but the circular itself refers back to the existing rule rather than restating its numeric value, so it does not tell us the number.

Two older circulars, one from 23 October 2019 covering grace marks in the marksheet for admission qualification, and one from 20 August 2016 titled Regarding to Provide Grace Marks to the Students of Concerned Institution’s of AKTU, are scanned image PDFs. We could not extract machine-readable text from either, so we cannot quote or summarise their contents with confidence. We are listing both under sources for transparency, not as evidence of a specific rule.

We could put a figure here, the way some sites do, quoting a fixed number of grace marks without citing any AKTU document. We looked for such a rule and could not find one, either in the ordinance or in the circulars we read. We checked the ordinance text we hold, and it does not state that figure anywhere. We also checked the circulars that use the phrase grace marks: the one we could read in full extends a rule without restating its value, while the other two are not extractable as text. Printing a specific number here without a document that states it would be a guess dressed up as a fact, so we are not doing it.

If you need the exact grace-marks rule for your batch and scheme, your college’s examination cell holds this detail at marksheet level, and AKTU’s circulars page is the place to look for a notice naming your specific admission session.

Whatever the numeric rule turns out to be, its effect under the ordinance is clear at clause 16.1. Any grace marks applied to your record rule out Honours and Distinction outright, on top of the requirement that every subject was passed in a single attempt with no year gap. They do not affect First division, 6.5 up to below 7.5 CGPA, or Second division, 5.0 up to below 6.5, since clauses 16.1(c) and (d) set those on CGPA and grade thresholds alone, with no mention of grace marks or attempts. See our grading system page for the full division table, and our carry-over rules guide for how a failed subject, a separate issue from grace marks, affects the same divisions.

• AKTU Carry-Over Rules
• AKTU Scrutiny, Challenge Evaluation and Revaluation
• AKTU Grading System
• AKTU Results 2026

Last checked against the source documents on 18 September 2026