23-yr-old student from Mumbai hopes recent judgment by SC will help him get admission in IIT-B

In what could come as a major relief and success for a 23-year-old student belonging to the reserved category, who was denied admission to a post-graduate diploma

In what could come as a major relief and success for a 23-year-old student belonging to the reserved category, who was denied admission to a post-graduate diploma course in the Industrial Design Centre of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), a recent Supreme Court judgement could ensure that he gets his way.

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After the institute failed to intimate the student Prathmesh Pedamkar him about his selection for admission on time, the student approached the Bombay high court as IIT-B refused to accommodate him. However, IIT-B informed the HC that they could not make an exception for him, the court asked the student’s lawyer to bring past judgements that directed institutes to admit students, though the seats were filled up. The apex court judgement will be placed before the HC on Monday.

The Apex court judgement of December 2019 in a similar case has held that if the student is not at fault, an institute is bound to grant the student admission in the current academic year by increasing a seat or granting him admission in the next academic year based on the selection procedure he/she underwent this year.

According to the petition by Pedamkar, he had worked hard to get admitted to the masters in diploma course at the IDC in IIT-B. Due to the pandemic the entire selection process of the institute which was to start in May had got postponed and had completed only in July with his personal interview.

Pedamkar’s advocate Ashraf Shaikh had informed the bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni that though the institute had not put up the revised schedule for the selection process, it kept the applicant students informed through email and mobile phone messages. Shaikh submitted that his client had managed to reach the final stage of selection through this method and was told that he would be intimated through the same method if he was shortlisted for the 17 seats on offer.

On August 21, after waiting for a month, Pedamkar who had not got any email or SMS from the institute contacted the authorities only to be told that he had not responded to the mail sent to him on August 2 and hence lost his seat after being selected for admission. Pedamkar then sought details of the email and a copy of the sent email, but the institute did not oblige. Hence he approached the Navi Mumbai Cyber Cell to find out whether he had received the email from IIT-B. The cyber cell, however, declined his request for want of a court order. Pedamkar then approached the high court as the institute refused to grant him admission belatedly as the reserved category seat had been filled up by another candidate.

The institute had however maintained that though the mail to Pedamkar had not reached him, it was his duty to check the IIT-B and IDC website to ascertain whether he was selected. The institute further submitted that though there were 19 students who had not received the mail, 14 of them secured their admission before August 6 after finding their name on the website. In light of this and there was no additional seat, the institute refused to grant him admission this year. It also refused to grant admission next year stating that Pedamkar would have to undergo the selection process again.

As IIT-B was adamant on not admitting Pedamkar, the court said it wanted to help Pedamakar but for that Shaikh should find previous orders of the SC or any other HC wherein an institute was asked to accommodate a student beyond its intake capacity.

The Supreme Court judgement passed on December 19, 2019, pertaining to admission of a student the MBBS course. The student had approached the SC after her petition for admission in the Delhi HC had got delayed and the date for admission had passed. The SC bench of justices Arun Mishra, MR Shah and B R Gavai held that though the date for admission had passed, keeping a meritorious student had to be put in the original position of getting the seat if he/she had lost the seat for no fault of his/her own.

The SC issued the following order:

1. The Court under exceptional circumstances and in rarest of rare cases direct the admission in the same year by directing to increase the seats, however, it should not be more than one or two seats and such admissions can be ordered within a reasonable time.

2. Such relief can be granted only in exceptional circumstances and in the rarest of rare cases. In case of such an eventuality, the Court may also pass an order cancelling the admission given to a candidate who is at the bottom of the merit list of the category

3. Wherever the court finds that the action of the authorities has been arbitrary and in breach of the rules and regulations or the prospectus affecting the rights of the students and that a candidate is found to be meritorious and such candidate/student has approached the court at the earliest and without any delay, the court can mould the relief and direct the admission to be granted to such a candidate in the next academic year by issuing appropriate directions.

4. if it is found that the management was at fault and wrongly denied the admission to the meritorious candidate, in that case, the Court may direct to reduce the number of seats in the management quota of that year, meaning thereby the student/students who was/were denied admission illegally to be accommodated in the next academic year out of the seats allotted in the management quota.

5. Grant of the compensation could be an additional remedy but not a substitute for restitutional remedies. Therefore, in an appropriate case, the Court may award the compensation to such a meritorious candidate who for no fault of his/her has to lose one full academic year and who could not be granted any relief of admission in the same academic year.