The Supreme Court on Monday came to the rescue of a Dalit youth, who had lost his seat in IIT Dhanbad after missing the deadline to deposit a fee, by asking the institute to admit him to the BTech course.

Atul Kumar, 18, cleared the prestigious JEE exam in his last attempt and was allotted a seat in Electronics Engineering at IIT Dhanbad. However, he was unable to pay the required fee by the deadline of June 24. 

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered IIT Dhanbad to grant admission to a Dalit student who lost his seat after missing the deadline to deposit the fee.

The counsel appearing for the Dalit student informed the bench that since the candidate's father was a daily wage worker, arranging for the admission fees of Rs. 17,500/- took time beyond the IIT portal's deadline.

Rs 17,500. That's the fee that a Dalit student had to pay to secure his admission into the prestigious IIT Dhanbad. The UP student had four days to submit the fee. The student's father, a daily wage labourer,tried all he could, but missed the mark.

Atul Kumar was all smiles as he walked out of the Supreme Court this afternoon. A short while back, a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud used its extraordinary powers to ask IIT Dhanbad to admit Atul Kumar