Supreme Court To Hear Plea Of Dalit Student Who Lost IIT Admission For Delay In Paying Fee

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (September 24) agreed to consider the plea of a Scheduled Caste candidate who qualified for admission to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dhanbad but was barred from admission due to a delay in submitting the fees. 

The counsel appearing for the petitioner informed the bench that since the candidate belonged to the SC category and his father was a daily wage worker, arranging for the admission fees of Rs. 17,500/- took time beyond the portal's deadline. The last date for submitting the fees on the portal was June 24. Though he arranged the money by 4.45 PM on June 24, by the time he uploaded the documents and proceeded for the online payment, the time crossed the deadline of 5 PM, the lawyer submitted.

The petitioner had cracked the JEE Advanced in his second and last attempt and had also approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Jharkhand Legal Services Authority as well as the High Court. The Counsel submitted that the High Court refused to entertain the matter observing that the issue would not fall within its ambit. Thus, after a delay of 3 months he was now approaching the Apex Court.

The bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice in the matter and said : 

"Bearing in mind the hardship of the petitioner, we issue notice in the petition, returnable on Monday"  

The Court also sought response from the Seat Allocation Authority, IIT Admissions, IIT Madras . Notably, the JEE exams for 2024 were organized by IIT Madras.  

The matter will now be heard on September 30. 

In 2021, a bench led by Justice Chandrachud had allowed a Dalit student to take admission in IIT Bombay despite the delay in paying the online admission fee (Prince Jaibir Singh v. Union of India).

Case Details : ATUL KUMAR Versus THE CHAIRMAN (JOINT SEAT ALLOCATION AUTHORITY) AND ORS|  

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