MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed the admission of 18-year-old Siddhant Batra to IIT-Bombay for the undergraduate bachelor of technology (BTech) course in electrical engineering on his plea that he had lost his seat to an “apparent mistake” while opting to withdraw only from further rounds during the online admission process.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheswari and Hrishikesh Roy regularised the admission for Batra, who had scored all-India JEE rank of 270, and said a “quietus” be put on this issue.
But, on the request of the IIT counsel Sonal Jain, the SC bench directed that its order not be treated as a precedent.
MUMBAI: In an interim order, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that IIT Bombay should permit 18-year-old Siddhant Batra to join and pursue classes for a BTech course in electrical engineering. He had scored an all-India JEE rank of 270 and secured the seat in October, only to lose within two weeks to an error he said he made online during the admission process. TOI was the first to report the matter on November 30.
At a virtual hearing on Wednesday, an SC bench of Justices S K Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy began by asking the IIT counsel, “Tell us why you are not allowing? This is not fair.When someone’s admission is complete… why would a meritorious student who had already got admission want to cancel it?” Permitting the admission, the SC observed, “There is something known as common sense too”.