An 18-year-old Dalit boy had missed the deadline for paying the acceptance fee at IIT Dhanbad by just three minutes due to a server failure. Atul Kumar then decided to take the case to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud assured him of help. The top court has now ordered the institute to admit the student.
“We can’t let such a talented boy go away,” the CJI said adding that “the only thing that stopped him was the inability to pay and as the Supreme Court of India we need to see that,” reported Live Law.
Apart from CJI DY Chandrachud, the three-judge bench also included Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. During the hearing, the top court asked the IIT why there was so much opposition. “You should see if something could be done,” Justice Pardiwala told the counsel for the authority.
“We are affirmatively of the view that a talented student like the petitioner should not be left in the lurch. The power of the Court under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice is to address such situations,” the Court observed, the report further added.
A resident of Titora village in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district, Atul belongs to a poor family. His father, Rajendra Kumar works as a labourer in a textile factory in Meerut. He cycles to work every day and earns Rs 450 daily. Atul’s mother, Rajesh Devi works as an agriculture labourer and makes cots.
An elated Atul told ANI, “My life is now back on track…The CJI did great, he said that financial constraints should not pose a hurdle in one’s progress. He said that I have a bright future and it should not be impacted.”
His family had taken a loan and raised money for his admission but still could not get through. The last date to pay the admission fees was June 24. Atul had managed to collect the fees of Rs 17,500, by borrowing from the villagers. However, the server of the online portal stopped responding just three minutes before the deadline and he was unable to get admission to the IIT.
“When the counseling was over, I got admission in the Electrical Department in IIT Dhanbad. So, I had to pay the fee for seat acceptance before 5 pm on June 24. The amount was Rs 17,500. I arranged the money at 4:45 pm. But the window (college online portal) had closed, due to which I could not pay the fee,” Atul had said earlier.
The teenager had first approached the Jharkhand High Court and then went to the Supreme Court. While listing the matter, the CJI’s had said, “Keeping in view the social background of the petitioner and the difficulties faced by him, we believe that this is a fit case for issuing notice to ascertain whether something can be done to safeguard the entry of the petitioner.”
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