Supreme Court comes to the aid of Dalit student who cracked IIT JEE but missed out on seat due to non-payment of fees

The Supreme Court on Thursday, came to the rescue of a 17-year-old boy from a Dalit community who had qualified for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay but missed out on a seat because of failure to remit seat acceptance fees on time due to technical glitches (Prince Jaibir Singh v. Union of India)..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said that while the boy's case may be weak on law, the Court has to show a humanitarian approach and rise above the law in such instances."Can't we do something? We can show him the door on five different points of law. But this is a humanitarian thing. Sometimes we must rise above the law," Justice Chandrachud remarked."This is a dalit boy who has cracked IIT Bombay. For all we know he could be a leader of the nation 10 years down the line," the judge added.The Court then proceeded to ask Central government lawyer to procure details of admission list of IIT Bombay so as to examine whether the petitioner boy can be accommodated..Justice Chandrachud also reassured the counsel appearing for respondents that this case will not be used as a precedent."We will say, we are using our special powers under Article 142 for this particular case," he stated..The petitioner had cleared cleared the Joint Entrance Examination 2021 and secured All India Rank (CRL) 25,894 and SC (Scheduled Caste) Rank 864. He got a seat allocated at IIT Bombay in Civil Engineering branch on October 27.As per the petition, after the allocation of seat, the petitioner logged into the Joint Seat Allocation Authority's (JOSAA) website on October 29 and uploaded the requisite documents. However, the petitioner fell short of money to pay the seat acceptance fee. His sister then transferred the money to him on October 30 and the petitioner tried to make payment about 10 to 12 times but failed to do so."Petitioner was unable to make the payment due to a technical error at the end of his card issuing bank, viz., State Bank of India," the plea said.The next day, i.e October 31, the petitioner attempted to make payment from a cyber cafe but that too did not bear fruition. He was thus unable to make payment of fees within the prescribed deadline.The petitioner attempted to call the respondents and also addressed emails to them but did not receive any response. Later, he physically went to IIT Kharagpur and requested them to accept an alternative mode of payment and allot him a seat but they expressed their inability..The petitioner then moved the Bombay High Court for relief but the court took a technical view and dismissed his writ petition, it was submitted..Each candidate is allowed two attempts for IIT JJEE, and this was the petitioner's second attempt, the plea highlighted. .[Read Order]