No hope for Ghaziabad student who lost IIT Bombay seat due to technical error, after HC declines to intervene 

The court gave the reason that the student, Prince Jaibir Singh, was unable to avail redressal on time and hence, he has entailed the consequence of rejection
Pic: Edexlive
Pic: Edexlive

Citing the reason that he wasn't able to file his grievance before the deadline, the Bombay High Court denied relief to Prince Jaibir Singh, the student from Ghaziabad who missed out on a seat at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay for not being able to pay the online fee on time because of a technical glitch in the month of October.

Prince Jaibir Singh had moved the court stating that he had successfully secured All India Rank 25,894 and Scheduled Caste Rank 864. He was allotted the seat, but on October 29, when he attempted to upload the required documents online and was trying to pay the seat acceptance fee the very next day, he failed to do so due to technical errors. He continued to try and make the payment multiple times. A division bench comprising justices SJ Kathawalla and Abhay Ahuja rejected the plea on Friday.

When Singh made an effort to connect with the concerned authorities via phone and email, he wasn't able to. Thus, on November 1, he visited the concerned office and appealed to the IIT authorities to grant him permission to make the payment. However, the authorities were not able to. Singh hoped that the court would be able to ask the authorities to process his admission by accepting the fees, stated a report in Hindustan Times.

Representing the Ministry of Education, Advocates Rui Rodrigues and DP Singh opposed Singh's petition and stated that the process of admission is a computerised one and non-payment of acceptance fee equals the rejection of seat. Henceforth, the student is not considered when it comes to further allocation. Moreover, since the rejected seat has already been allocated to the eligible candidate who was next in line, IIT Bombay had no vacant seats left.

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Advocate Rodrigues also referred to the Supreme Court's earlier directive that had asked courts not to issue directions that asked authorities to act in contradiction to their set rules.

“The petitioner indeed appears to be a meritorious student... The petitioner did not register his grievance with regard to his failure to make payment by online mode before 12.00 noon, but instead, registered his grievance on 31/10/2021 after 12 noon, after the entire activity/process was finally closed/shut,” said the bench. Since Singh had not availed redressal on time, the court said, he is entailed the consequence of rejection.

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