On Monday, November 22nd, the Supreme court gave a verdict in the favour of Prince Jaibeer Singh, a 17th-year-old Dalit Boy who was denied admission at the prestigious IIT Kharagpur due to late fee payment.
Prince Jaibeer Singh appeared for the toughest exam of the country, the IIT JEE entrance secured an all-India rank of 25,894 and SC category Rank 864 in 2021. This was his second attempt at the exam. As he did not make it last year, he took admission to an engineering institute at Allahabad but continued to prepare for the IIT entrance exam.
Prince is a resident of Uttar Pradesh and comes from a financially weak family. He managed to secure a seat at the IIT but wasn’t having enough fee to pay for the counselling. He struggled for the amount, and his sister managed to arrange the sum for him. Furthermore, he is the youngest among the four siblings and has 3 elder sisters. Destiny had some other plans for him.
Even after the arrangement of the money, the payment failed at the digital gateway due to a technical glitch at the last moment. Singh was adamant to secure a seat and went all the way to Kharagpur where counselling was going on, but his request was denied. Singh approached the Bombay High Court for his matter, but the court denied any interference. Prince then knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court. The case was heard by the bench comprising Justice Chandrachud who gave the verdict in the favour of the boy.
The Supreme court on Monday gave its final verdict and said that it would be a travesty of justice if the boy is not denied admission due to these circumstances. The court observed that these circumstances were inevitable, and it wasn’t the fault of the boy. The court ordered the Institution to allocate him a seat within 48 hours without affecting the allocated seats to other candidates.
It is indeed a good move by the court as it would allow a fresh perspective shortly. Any person belonging to any category should not be judged or denied justice because of the ongoing disparity. Justice should prevail in every section of the society irrespective of caste, creed or sex.
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