A day after four students of IIT-Delhi lost their lives in an accident near Jaisalmer, sources said the institute was considering awarding one of the students a BTech degree posthumously following a request by the student’s parents. The degree, if awarded by the academic senate, will be given for purely sentimental reasons serving no practical purpose, the sources said. All four were final-year students of BTech-MTech (dual degree) programme. On Sunday morning, six students of IIT-Delhi were going towards Jaisalmer when a tyre of the Innova in which they were travelling burst, killing four students. “Three students — Pallav Aggarwal and Deeksha Gautam from the computer science department, and Archana Kumari from the chemical department — died on the spot while Mayank Goel from the bio-technology department succumbed to injuries later in hospital,” Rakesh Kumar, registrar, IIT-Delhi, said. The students had gone on a road trip to Rajasthan to celebrate their placements. “Shachi Mittal and Jatin Kumar, from bio-technology and computer science departments respectively, were injured in the accident. Jatin has been discharged. He left for Patiala from Jodhpur with his brother. But Shachi is still in hospital in Jodhpur with multiple fractures,” the registrar said. He said an air ambulance had been kept ready in Jodhpur, should doctors recommend that Shachi be shifted to Delhi for advanced medical care. Sources at IIT-Delhi said although granting degrees when the course for a particular programme was incomplete was not permissible under rules, the academic senate, which takes the final call on such matters, might approve the request given the “exceptional nature of the circumstances”. “Although the students had completed only about half of their final-year course load, their course credits were complete for a four-year programme. So, in such a case, even if a complete MTech degree cannot be awarded, a BTech can certainly be awarded posthumously, although only for purely sentimental reasons serving no practical purpose,” a source said. IIT-Delhi authorities refused to comment, saying the “matter was highly sensitive”. They, however, said it could be considered by the academic senate. According to officials, the families of Archana and Mayank, from Bihar and Meerut respectively, have already been handed their bodies in Jodhpur. “The bodies of Pallav and Deeksha, from Dhanbad and Delhi respectively, will reach us by Monday evening,” the registrar said. Parents of one of them are reportedly staying at IIT-Delhi’s guesthouse and will leave on Tuesday morning with the body.
