Bombay High Court: In a petition before the Division Bench of A.S. Chandurkar and Rajesh S. Patil, JJ., the petitioner sought the grant of permission to participate in the admission process for the Bachelor of Science-Research (“B.Sc.-R”) programme starting in 2024, at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (“IISC”). The candidates were required to submit their online applications by 14-05-2024, however, the petitioner submitted his application on 09-06-2024. The petitioner contended that he should be permitted to participate in the admission process based on the All-India Rank (“AIR”) 10 that he had secured in the IISER Aptitude Test 2024 (“entrance test”). The Court stated that the grant of such relief would be an injustice to the other applicants who were similarly situated as the petitioner and who could not submit their applications in time as well. Therefore, no relief was granted by the Court and the petition was dismissed.
Background
The instant petition challenged the communication issued by the IISC, informing him that he was ineligible for the admission process. The admission notice for the academic year 2024-25 issued by IISC, required the candidates seeking admission to the B.Sc.-R programme, to submit their applications online, in-between 01-04-2024 and 07-05-2024, that was further extended to 14-05-2024 (“deadline”). The petitioner had submitted his application on 09-06-2024.
The petitioner submitted that he had secured AIR 10 in the entrance exam, and hence was eligible to secure admission as per the prescribed cut-off marks. He contended that he ought to be permitted to participate in the admission process, and to upload his necessary documents. The petitioner further contended that his application was not being considered because of the failure to pay the application fee of Rs. 500.
The IISc contended that the petitioner’s candidature was not rejected due to the non-payment of application fee, but because the petitioner did not submit his application within the deadline. IISc further stated that they received thousands of applications until the extended deadline, and if the petitioner’s delayed application was accepted, it would render the deadline immaterial.
Court’s decision
The Court noted the fact that the petitioner had secured a good AIR, however he could not be permitted to participate in the admission process only on that basis, since he had not submitted his application on time. Merely on the basis of sympathy for the petitioner, the Court could not grant the directions sought by him in the petition.
The Court stated that granting such relief would cause injustice to other applicants who were similarly situated as the petitioner and could not submit their applications by 14-05-2024.
Therefore, the Court did not grant any relief to the petitioner and dismissed his petition.
[Siddhant Mahesh Rane v. Indian Institute of Science, 2024 SCC OnLine Bom 2242, decided on 10-07-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the petitioner: S.R. Nargolkar, Arjun Kadam, Neeta Patil, Advocates
For the respondent: Syed Kashif, Ashlesha Modak, Advocates, i/b Auris Legal
