On Wednesday, the Supreme Court permitted an exception for an 18-year-old to complete his engineering course at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, after ordering the institute to admit him on a provisional basis last month. In the All India Joint Engineering Entrance 2020, Siddhant Batra was ranked 270, but clicked during the online admission process on the ‘withdraw’ page.
The bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy directed IIT, Bombay to regularize the admission of Batra, considering the fact that the institute had admitted students to its capacity and had already begun classes, to dispose of the petition filed by Batra. The bench made it clear, though, that this is not going to be viewed as a precedent. On December 9, the SC released a notice in support of the Batra’s petition and held, “By interim order, we direct that the petitioner should be permitted to join the respondent-institution and pursue his course subject to fulfillment of all other formalities.”
Initially, Batra addressed the Bombay High Court, but IIT-Bombay declined to accept that the move by Batra was an error.
