Allahabad HC Judge gives Rs 15,000 to Dalit student to pay fee, asks IIT BHU to give admission

Lucknow: In a humane gesture, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday gave Rs 15,000 for a poor Dalit student, who approached it after being unable to deposit the amount for allotment of a seat at IIT (BHU) after cracking the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advance. It further directed the Joint Seat Allocation Authority and IIT (BHU) to admit the student in Mathematics and Computing course (Bachelor and Master of Technology, dual degree course).

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The bench also instructed the BHU to create a supernumerary seat for the Dalit student, if there is no seat vacant now. It asked the student to report at BHU within three days, along with the necessary documents for admission. A bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh passed the order on a petition moved by student Sanskriti Ranjan in person.

She requested the bench that the Joint Seat Allocation Authority and IIT (BHU) be directed to grant her some more time to deposit the fee, which is a sum of Rs 15,000. It was pleaded in the petition that she belonged to Scheduled Caste category. She scored 95.6 per cent marks in Class 10 and 94 per cent in Class 12. Ranjan secured 92.77 percentile in JEE Mains Examination and bagged a rank of 2,062 as an SC candidate.

Thereafter, she applied for JEE Advanced on September 16 and cleared it on October 15, scoring 1,469 rank in the SC category. "The petitioner was allotted a seat at IIT (BHU) Varanasi for Mathematics and Computing course in counselling. However, she could not arrange the meager amount of Rs 15,000, the fees to be paid before the scheduled date," stated the petition.

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Ranjan pleaded that her father was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease. He was advised to get a kidney transplant and also had to undergo dialysis twice in a week. In such circumstances, due to her father's ill-health and the financial crisis created by medical expenses and COVID-19, she could not arrange Rs 15,000 for allotment of a seat at IIT (BHU).

"The petitioner and her father have written many times to the Joint Seat Allocation Authority for extension of time indicating the precarious condition for which she could not deposit the fee, but did not get a reply," pleaded advocates Sarvesh Dubey and Samta Rao, who were asked by the bench to assist the petitioner, who could not even engage a lawyer to plead her case properly.

Considering that a bright, young Dalit girl had appeared before the HC seeking equity jurisdiction to be able to pursue her dream of getting admitted to the IIT, the court on its own volunteered to contribute Rs 15,000, the fees for allocation of the seat, the bench said.

The amount was handed over to the petitioner after court hours on Monday, it said. "As an interim measure, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority and IIT (BHU) are directed to admit the petitioner in Mathematics and Computing course.

If there is no seat vacant in the said discipline, BHU is directed to create a supernumerary post, which shall be subject to the admission of the petitioner being regularised in the event of any seat falling vacant in future as a result of exigency which may arise in the course of admission process," Justice Singh said. If no seat falls vacant, the petitioner shall continue her studies for the course against a supernumerary seat, he ordered.