[BREAKING] Supreme Court orders creation of a seat in IIT Bombay for Dalit student who was unable to pay fees on time

The Supreme Court on Monday, directed the creation of a seat in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay for a 17-year-old Dalit boy who had qualified for IIT exam 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 exercised its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to direct the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JOSAA) to earmark a seat for the student, noting that it will be a great travesty of justice if the boy misses out on admission due to no fault of his.

"This court has before it a young Dalit student who is on the verge of loosing a valued seat which has been allocated in IIT Bombay. It would be a great travesty of justice if the young Dalit student is denied admission for non payment of fees to IIT Bombay after having tried to do so. hence we are of the view that its a fit case of article 142 in interim stage," the Court said.

It, therefore, ordered that a seat be allocated to the student in IIT Bombay without disturbing the admission of any other student.

Creation of this seat will be subject to admission being regularised if (any other) seat falls vacant, the Court added.

The order was passed after the JOSAA informed the Court today that all seats have been filled and no vacant seats are available.

The Court came to the rescue of the student after it was pointed out that the student was unable to pay fees on time due to technical faults for which he was not responsible.

The Bench said that the authorities should not take such a wooden approach but should understand the ground realities in such issues.

"Don’t take this wooden approach. Please understand the realities of social life, the issues on ground. The student did not have money, then sister had to transfer money and then there were technical issues. The boy cleared the exam. If it was his negligence then we would not have asked you," the Court remarked.

. 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 prompting the present appeal before the top court.

. Advocate Amol Chitale and Advocate-on-record Pragya Baghel appeared for the petitioner.

[BREAKING] Supreme Court orders creation of a seat in IIT Bombay for Dalit student who was unable to pay fees on time

Debayan Roy

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