The Supreme Court has ordered the creation of a new seat for students at IIT Bombay. (View from above: IIT-B)
New Delhi:
A 17-year-old Dalit student who was about to lose his seat at the country’s top Indian Institute of Technology, or IIT, was bailed out by the Supreme Court today. Prince Jaibeer Singh had previously been turned away by the Bombay High Court. But judges today said it would be a “betrayal of justice” if he was denied admission and did not receive help from the nation’s highest court.
Prince, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, was selected to enter civil engineering at IIT’s Bombay campus on October 27. But he was unable to pay the acceptance fee of Rs 15,000 – the initial amount to be paid. online to secure seats.
Initially, he fell short of money. But when he was able to sort it out with some help from his sister, he was plagued by technical glitches on the site.
“There were some difficulties in collecting the funds, but my sister helped us,” said the teenager, who has three older sisters. “Then I tried to pay the fee but there was a technical problem… I even went all the way to IIT Kharagpur (where the chair consultation is underway) to be able to pay the fee,” he said.
He then approached Bombay High Court, which dismissed his plea. Desperate, he then moved the Supreme Court.
Today, the highest court ordered the IIT to allocate him a seat within 48 hours.
“Create a seat for this student… Ensure that this does not disturb any other students already admitted,” the court said.
Judge DY Chandrachud, who was on the two-judge bench, said, “This court has pre-trial of a young Dalit student who was on the verge of losing a precious chair that was assigned to him at IIT Bombay. … It would be a grave trace of justice that a young Dalit student was denied admission for not paying fees and was turned away by the Supreme Court”.
“God has heard our prayers. I am very happy. The past few days have been very difficult for us… The Supreme Court is our last hope. I am very worried today” , Prince, who lives in Ghaziabad, said. parents and the youngest in a family of five siblings.
The teenager has earned an all-India rank of 25,894 and an SC rank of 864 this year – his second attempt in the exam. After failing to pass last year, he secured admission at a technical institute in Allahabad, but continues to prepare for the IIT entrance exam.
Prince will be the first in his family to get into IIT. He has a distant cousin who studies at IIT Patna. His father was a lower-ranking official in the Delhi Police.
“IIT has always been my dream. My goal in life is to develop expertise in defense technology. I want to modernize India’s defense sector so that we no longer have to depend on other nations. another country to import the complex parts used in he said.
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