SC asks IIT Dhanbad to grant admission to Dalit youth who lost seat for not depositing fees
New Delhi, Sep 30: The Supreme Court on Monday came to the rescue of a Dalit youth, who lost his hard-earned IIT Dhanbad seat after missing the deadline to deposit Rs 17,500 admission fees by few minutes, by asking the institute to admit him in the same batch of the BTech course.
Observing that “a talented student like the petitioner should not be left in the lurch”, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud kept its promise to help the youth and took recourse of Article 142 of the Constitution to order the IIT Dhanbad to grant Atul Kumar (18) the admission in the Electrical Engineering course.
On September 25, the bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had assured him of all possible help after he claimed that on June 24 he missed the 5 pm deadline of deposit admission fees to block a seat by 15 minutes.
"We cannot allow such a young talented boy to go away," the CJI said at the outset and was irked over the objections raised by the institute.
The counsel for IIT Seat Allocation Authority said the login details of the candidate that he was logged in at 3 pm which proved that it was not a last-minute log-in as claimed.
The counsel said that repeated reminders through SMS and WhatsApp were also sent to the candidate.
"Why are you opposing so much? You should see if something could be done," the bench said, adding that here is a son of a daily wager who belongs to a marginalised section of the society and a BPL (below poverty line) family.
There is no conceivable reason why the petitioner would not have paid the amount if he had the wherewithal to pay the Rs 17,500 fee, the bench said, adding, "The only thing that stopped him was the inability to pay and as the Supreme Court of India we need to see that."
The bench said the court has to take into account the social and economic background of the youth.
"We are affirmatively of the view that a talented student like the petitioner should not be left in the lurch. The power of the Court under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice is to address such situations," it said and directed, "The petitioner should be admitted to the same batch in which he would have been admitted and should be given all consequential benefits such as hostel admission".
The youth was standing in the packed courtroom with folded hands and the CJI wished him good luck for the future.
“All the best! Acha kariye! (do well)" the CJI said and asked him about his siblings who are also pursuing engineering in other colleges.
At the outset, the bench referred to his ordeal and said he first went to the legal services authority of the Jharkhand High Court which asked him to go to Chennai to approach the legal services authority there as the Madras IIT held the entrance exam this year.
Then the Madras High Court asked him to move the top court, the bench said.
"Here is a Dalit boy who is being made to run from pillar to post," the CJI said, adding, "he does all the hard work to get into the IIT. If he had Rs 17,500 why will he not pay".
Article 142 of the Constitution gives extraordinary power to the top court to pass orders and decrees to ensure "complete justice" in any case before it and these orders are enforceable throughout the country.
Earlier, Kumar had said that his parents failed to deposit the fees and had approached various authorities, including the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Jharkhand Legal Services Authority and the Madras high court, to save the hard-earned seat.
His counsel had told the bench that Kumar cleared the JEE Advanced in his second and last attempt and if the top court does not come to his rescue he would not be able to take another shot at the test.
After very brief arguments, the bench had issued notices to the Joint Seat Allocation Authority, IIT Admissions, IIT Madras, which conducted the test this year.
The lawyer had referred to the financial condition of the family of the youth.
It was a very tough task for the students to arrange Rs 17,500 by 5 pm of June 24, that too in just four days after allotment of the seat in IIT Dhanbad, the lawyer said.
Kumar, son of a daily wager, hails from a BPL family living at Titora village in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
