SC asks IIT-Dhanbad to grant admission to Dalit youth who lost seat for not depositing Rs 17,500-acceptance fee

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The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday came to the rescue of a Dalit youth who had lost his seat in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Dhanbad after missing the deadline to deposit the acceptance fee and asked the authorities to admit the 18-year-old student to the BTech course, news agency PTI reported.

"We cannot allow such a young talented boy to go away. He cannot be left in lurch," stated the SC bench, comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

According to PTI, the top court used its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution while directing IIT-Dhanbad to admit the student, Atul Kumar, into its Electrical Engineering BTech course. Article 142 of the Constitution empowers the top court to pass any order in the interest of justice.

"We are of the view that a talented student like the petitioner who belongs to a marginalised group who did all to secure admission should not be left out... we direct that candidate is granted admission to IIT-Dhanbad and let him be in the same batch to which he would have been granted admission if the fees would have been paid," the bench said in the order.

The 18-year-old is the son of a daily wager and hails from a below poverty line (BPL) family, which resides at Titora village in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Kumar's parents failed to deposit Rs 17,500 as the acceptance fee by June 24, which was the deadline for paying the amount for blocking the seat, PTI reported. They approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Jharkhand Legal Services Authority and the Madras High Court to save Kumar's hard-earned seat.

However, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes expressed its inability to help him.

As Kumar had taken the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at a centre in Jharkhand, he moved the Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority which suggested him to approach the Madras High Court (HC) as it was IIT-Madras that had conducted the exam, PTI stated.

Madras HC then asked the 18-year-old to approach the top court.

(With PTI inputs)