The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, came to the rescue of an 18-year-old student almost lost his seat for a 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.
According to media reports, the apex court directed IIT Bombay to regularise the admission of the student, Siddhant Batra, who hails from Agra. The Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and comprising of justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy, asked the institute to regularise Batra's admission although the institute has admitted students to its maximum capacity and started classes. Nonetheless, the court noted that this case will not be treated as a precedent.
Batra, who had secured All India Rank (AIR) of 270 in JEE Advanced exams and secured admission, claimed in his plea before the apex court that he had clicked the wrong link which was meant to withdraw his seat. Batra intended to freeze the seat, the plea said.
Batra had sought a direction from the court to the IIT to consider his case on humanitarian grounds, and requested creation of an additional seat to undo his loss. The youngster, who lives with his grandparents following the death of his parents, in the plea said he had worked hard against all odds to crack IIT JEE exams.
As per his plea, Batra, while filling out the admission process online, came upon a page with 'freeze' option, which he thought meant confirming the seat and the completion of his admission process.
"On October 31, 2020 when Batra was surfing the IIT portal to check for further updates, he came upon a link which carried a declaration that read 'I would like to withdraw from the seat allocation process of JoSAA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority'," the petition said.
As per the plea, Batra inadvertently clicked on this link and stated 'IIT Bombay, Electrical Engineering' as reasons for withdrawal. It added that Batra never intended to withdraw his admission.
— With PTI inputs