The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of an 18-year-old student by directing the IIT Bombay to grant interim admission to him in an engineering course on Wednesday. After he accidentally lost his seat by clicking on a wrong link in the online admission process.
Siddhant Batra, who addresses from Agra, had lost his seat for the four-year electrical engineering course in the prestigious IIT Bombay after he “inadvertently” clicked on a “wrong” link which was meant to withdraw from the process. A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul took note of the submissions of lawyer Pralhad Paranjpe on behalf of the student and asked the IIT Bombay to grant provisional admission to him. The plea was filed in the apex court after the Bombay High Court dismissed the petition by noting the submissions of the IIT that it cannot intervene at this stage as all the seats for the course were full and moreover, the admission rules had to be followed. It had said Siddhant could apply again next year for JEE.
The High Court had initially directed the IIT to consider Siddhant’s petition after he approached it, as a representation and pass appropriate orders. Siddhant, who had secured All India Rank (AIR) of 270 in JEE Advanced exams and secured admission, claimed in his plea that he had clicked the wrong link which was meant to withdraw his seat. He intended to freeze the seat, the plea said. In November 2020, when the final list of students was uploaded on the IIT portal, his name was not included. The IIT, in its order, said the withdrawal option was a “conscious” two-step process.
It said applicants who want to withdraw before the final round can do so and the ‘seat acceptance fee’ gets refunded, adding that once a candidate has withdrawn then his or her seat holds cancelled.
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