When SC cleared way for teen’s IIT seat, it had a happy precedent: Prince, now in his 4th year at IIT Bombay

Not only did Prince answer Rajendra’s call, he also encouraged him to approach both the Supreme Court and his own lawyer to fight for Atul’s lost seat. On Monday, the Supreme Court directed IIT Dhanbad to create a supernumerary seat in its electrical engineering BTech course for Atul, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste, in the same batch to ensure that no existing student is disturbed in the process.

“We are of the view that a talented student should not be left in the lurch,” a Bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra ordered.

Prince told The Indian Express, “I received a call from Atul’s father in June. After hearing about their situation, I was sure it wasn’t their mistake. They tried to make the payment before the deadline, but the system didn’t allow it. So I encouraged them to take the issue to court and my own lawyer.”

Prince, who belongs to the Dalit community, too had lost his seat at IIT Bombay on October 31, 2021, due to his bank facing a technical glitch, which prevented him from paying the seat acceptance fee before the deadline. On October 29, 2021, he uploaded the requisite documents but realised that he was short of the total amount required to pay the fee. On October 30, 2021, his sister transferred the balance amount to his account. For 10-12 hours that day, he tried to make the payment but a technical error at the bank’s end prevented him from doing so. On October 31, 2021, he went to a cyber cafe to make the payment. Once again, all his attempts failed and the deadline expired. The Supreme Court came to his rescue on November 20, 2021, saying that the fault lay not with the student but with the system.

Three years on, Prince, now 21, is a fourth-year civil engineering student at IIT Bombay with a CGPA of 7.7. He currently heads the business team of the institute’s satellite project, and is thriving both academically and socially.

Just like Atul’s family, in 2021, Prince followed the example of Siddhant Batra, a senior who had lost and then regained his seat at IIT Bombay — Siddhant had “inadvertent(ly)” clicked on the “wrong” link that was meant to withdraw from the process.

Reflecting on his legal battle, Prince says, “If a candidate has tried to make the payment and it doesn’t go through before the deadline, the candidate should challenge it… I was fortunate that the verdict in my case came out on the day of my orientation, so I did not miss any classes.”

However, his first year at IIT Bombay was fraught with challenges. Between adjusting to IIT’s academic rigour and recovering from the stress of his legal battle, he struggled to keep up. “We were in the middle of the pandemic at the time. I did my entire first semester from home. I set foot on campus only in the second semester. My CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) in the first semester was around 6.7. Everything was overwhelming at first,” Prince admits.

Despite his early difficulties, Prince says he found his footing by the second year. “In the first year, I often found myself lagging behind since I was allotted a reserved seat at a comparatively lower score. By the second year, it becomes alright,” he says.

Early into his journey at IIT, Prince says he realised the importance of extracurricular activities. “If you’re a 9-pointer without extracurriculars, it doesn’t count for much if you don’t hold any positions of responsibility,” he says, adding that he signed up for sports (basketball and swimming) and joined the institute’s satellite team.

Born and raised in Ghaziabad as the youngest of five siblings, Prince is the first in his family to attend an IIT. Originally from Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, his grandparents worked as farm labourers. His father, however, managed to become an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) in the Delhi Police, while his mother is a home-maker. After his class 10 from a school in his neighbourhood, he got a full scholarship at Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad.

Talking about the pressures a student from the reserved category deals with, he says, “…There is a combination of discrimination and academic pressure on campus. While no one discriminated against me directly, discussions about reservation tend to create a sense of alienation at times. Especially, when people say things like, ‘You got a seat with a low score’. But what can we do? It’s in the Constitution,” he says.

Stating that at IIT Bombay, he has never felt shy about his background and that there are regular discussions on campus about these topics, he says the institute has a SC/ST welfare cell, where students can raise concerns about discrimination.

As he nears the end of his academic journey, Prince looks back at his own experience of navigating IIT’s computerised admission system. “The counselling process by JoSAA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority, which is responsible for counselling for admission to IITs) is totally computerised. One wrong click and you are left out entirely. They should come up with a way to accommodate such candidates. Years of hard work should not be erased by a technical issue. There will always be challenges but if you have worked hard for something, you should fight for it,” he says.