Allahabad High Court Helps 'Bright Young Dalit Girl' With IIT BHU Admission Fee

Sanskriti Ranjan had appealed the court to direct the university to waive off her fees.

File photo of Allahabad High Court.  

(Photo: PTI)

In a heart-warming gesture, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday, 30 November, volunteered to help a 17-year-old student who was unable to afford the fee required for getting admission to the prestigious IIT BHU (Banaras Hindu University) after qualifying for it.

Sanskriti Ranjan had appealed to the court to direct the university to waive off her fees.

On learning her situation, the judge who was hearing the case, came forward to shell out 'Rs 15,000' from his own pocket, and lawyers pitched in to raise Sanskriti's entire admission fee, NDTV reported.

Background

Sanskriti cleared the national joint entrance examination (JEE) with 92.77 percentile and had secured a rank of 2,062 in the Scheduled Caste category.

She wanted to pursue a five-year course in Mathematics and Computing at the IIT BHU. However, she couldn't afford the university's admission fee as her father was diagnosed with chronic Kidney disease and had to undergo Kidney transplantation.

Hence, she petitioned the high court, which directed the university and the Union Education Ministry's seat allocation body to admit her.

After the single judge bench comprising Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh gave the order, she was asked to report to the university within three days.

"A bright young Dalit girl student has come before this Court seeking equity jurisdiction to enable to pursue her dream of getting admitted in the IIT, this court on its own has volunteered to contribute Rs.15,000 for allocation of the seat," Justice Singh said as per NDTV.

A few days ago, the Supreme Court had exercised its power under Article 142 of the Constitution to create a seat for a Dalit student at IIT Bombay, who passed the exam but could not deposit fee on time due to technical glitches.

(With inputs from NDTV.)