Greetings!

Yes, your category rank does matter in JOSAA, in fact in most cases it matters more than your CRL.

It is because the way that system works is the software will check your first preference, if you are getting that college with your CRL, then well and good but if not, then it will go and check your category rank. Now if you are getting that preference with category rank, you will be allotted that, if not then it will move to second preference, and same process will be repeated.

Now thing here to note is that as there is significantly competition in many categories you are way more likely to get admission in college of your choice with category rank when compared to CRL.

If you want to explore on which colleges you can get with your category rank you can use following predictor

https://engineering.careers360.com/jee-main-college-predictor?utm_source=qna&utm_medium=jee_cp

Thank you

~Sach