[Equity Jurisdiction] Allahabad High Court pays fee of Dalit student who couldn’t pay for admission in IIT BHU

  • Ratna Singh
  • 05:02 PM, 30 Nov 2021

Read Time: 05 minutes

Invoking its equity jurisdiction, the Allahabad High Court on Monday helped a Dalit student and cleared her admission fees of ₹15,000 into Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), as she was not able to pay the same due to financial crisis created by medical expenses and Covid-19. 

A Single judge bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh took note of her academic career and volunteered to contribute Rs.15,000/- the fee for allocation of her seat.

"..considering the facts of the present case, where a young bright dalit girl student has come before this Court seeking equity jurisdiction to enable to pursue her dream of getting admitted in the I.I.T., this Court on its own has volunteered to contribute Rs.15,000/- the fee for allocation of the seat. The said amount has been handed over to the petitioner after court hours today itself." the court remarked 

Accordingly, the bench directed BHU to create a supernumerary seat for her, if there was no seat vacant now and asked her to report the campus within three days, along with the necessary documents for admission

“If there is no seat vacant in the said discipline, I.I.T. B.H.U. is directed to create a supernumerary post, which shall be subject to the admission of the petitioner being regularized in the event of any seat falling vacant in future as a result of exigency which may arise in the course of admission process.”

The counsel for petitioner, Advocates Servesh Kumar Dubey and Samta Rao told the court that Sanskriti Rajan, was not able to pay meager amount of Rs.15,000/- for seat acceptance as her father has been diagnosed with chronic Kidney decease and, he has been advised for Kidney Transplant. 

It was also highlighted that the petitioner along with her father have written many times to Joint Seat Allocation Authority for extension of time indicating precarious condition for which she could not deposit the fee but no reply has come forth from the Joint Seat Allocation Authority.

The counsel for petitioner also referred to the recent case where Supreme Court invoked its extraordinary jurisdiction and helped a 17-year-old boy from a Dalit community who had qualified for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay but missed out on a seat because of failure to remit seat acceptance fees on time due to technical glitches. 

Accordingly, Sanskriti was asked to report at I.I.T. B.H.U. within a period of three days from November 29, with relevant papers and fee for getting herself admitted for Mathematics and Computing (5 years, Bachelor and Master of Technology (Dual Degree)