JUDGMENT :

1. This writ petition has been preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India claiming the following reliefs :

“It is, therefore, respectfully prayed that this Writ Petition may kindly be allowed:-

i. the petitioner may be given his initial chosen and allotted seat for pursing degree of Energy Engineering (4 years, Bachelor of Technology) at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi under ST category for the current academic year.

ii. the petitioner may be allowed to be part of subsequent counselling rounds (including submission of admission fees) in order to achieve higher preference as in accordance with the “Float” option he had selected.

iii. any appropriate order or direction, Respondents may be directed to provide vacant seat to the petitioner, which may be higher than the initially allocated seat, if it is found vacant at the end of Round 6.

iv. any appropriate order or direction, which this Hon’ble Court considers just and proper looking to the facts and circumstances of this case, may kindly be passed in favor of the Petitioner.”

2. As per the pleaded facts, the petitioner is a student, who attempted both Joint Entrance Exam-Mains (JEE-Mains)-for admission in NITs, IIITs and other State/Central funded colleges, as well as Joint Entrance Exam-Advanced (JEE-Advanced)-for admission in IITs, whereupon he secured rank #838 in JEE-Mains and #704 in JEE-Advanced, in ST category. Both JEE-Mains and JEE-Advanced are conducted and governed by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JOSAA), and in the present case, the organizing Institution for the said examinations was the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. The seat allocation and admission process of the above mentioned exams follow a strict timeline and the entire process is done online, thus computer operated.

2.1 Thereafter, the petitioner reserved his choice of seat for pursuing Degree in Energy Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and at the time of accepting the seat online out of the available three options-‘Freeze’, ‘Float’ or ‘Slide’, opted for the option of “Float” (wherein candidate accepts the offered seat, and indicates that if admission to an academic program of higher preference in any Institute was offered in subsequent rounds of seat allocation, the candidate would accept it, else continue with the currently accepted programme).

2.2. Thereafter, the petitioner had to submit requisite documents and pay fees for allocation of seat by July 4, 2023, 17:00 hrs and the same was attempted to be done; however, due to some technical glitch, the petitioner could not upload his mark-sheet of Class XII and his medical certificate within the prescribed time limit; since the documents were not uploaded, the petitioner further could not move to payment window, and thus, failed to pay the fees for the allocated seat.

2.2.1. As per the e-counselling service window, it was clear that failure in payment of fess would result in cancellation of the provisionally allotted seat, and consequently, the petitioner lost his allocated seat, which further resulted in cancellation of his candidature completely. Thus, aggrieved by the same, the petitioner has preferred the present writ petition claiming the afore-quoted reliefs.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the documents could not be uploaded on the system due to some technical glitch, and thus, the petitioner was not permitted to submit the requisite fees for further admission/counselling process. In furtherance, the petitioner belonged to the ST category and scored good marks in both the aforesaid examinations; however, only due to a technical error, his candidature was rejected, and thus, two years of his hard work would go in vain.

3.1. It was also submitted that the difficulty with regard to uploading of the documents arose at the time of final submission of the form, and as far as payment of fees in offline mode is concerned, the same would have been possible only if the documents had