Supreme Court comes to aid of Dalit student who couldn't pay IIT admission fee

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Dhanbad to give admission to the son of a Dalit wager who had missed the deadline for payment of admission fee [Atul Kumar v Chairman Joint Seat Allocation Authority].

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra used its plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution and asked the IIT to create a seat for the student.

"We cannot allow such a young talented boy to go away. He is a dalit boy being made to run from pillar to post, he is the son of a daily wager. In Article 142, there are some cases we keep the law a little aside," the CJI remarked.

The Counsel for the boy's father pointed out that his daily wage is only ₹450 and the task of arranging ₹17,500 has been difficult and time-consuming.

The student had cleared the Joint Entrance Examination this year and secured a rank of 1,455 in the Scheduled Castes category. He got a seat at IIT-Dhanbad for electrical engineering.

However, he was late in arranging funds and documents for the online fee portal and hence, failed to get admitted to the college.

He then moved the Supreme Court.

The Bench today came to his rescue, noting in its order,

"We are of the view that a talented student like a petitioner who belongs to a marginalised group and is a talented student who did all to secure admission should not be left out and Article 142 to do substantial justice is for this only ... No existing student be disturbed and let a supernumerary seat be created for the candidate."

The hearing ended on a poignant note as counsel for the student's father pointed out that the Bar had offered to help pay the fees.

"Even Senior Advocate Anand Padmanabhan and other senior members of the Bar also offered to pay his fees. We are grateful."

The CJI then spoke to the student himself.

"All the best. Achha kariye."