Court bats for students who make errors in forms online .The Delhi High Court has ruled that students should neither be deprived of their right to education on bonafide mistakes nor penalised to the extent that their admission is cancelled.
Bonafide mistakes of students while submitting entrance form online can be ignored, said the court, particularly if the students belonged to areas where proper computer and internet facilities were unavailable. And more so when they had secured a seat in the entrance exam. Justice G S Sistani, allowing a student from a village in Haryana to join the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Kurukshetra, has observed that bonafide mistake of the student cannot be penalised to the extent that the admission granted to him should be cancelled.The court’s observation came while hearing a plea by Rohit Yadav who, while applying online for All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) 2012 conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education wrote the wrong date of birth mistakenly. Yadav, after clearing the AIEEE, secured a seat in NIT. But the institute denied him admission citing discrepancy in date of birth. The court, passing the order, said: “Having regard to the facts of this case, I am of the view that on account of the bonafide mistake of the petitioner (Yadav), the petitioner cannot be penalised to the extent that the admission granted to him should be cancelled”. The court observed that “on account of this mistake to debar him would amount to travesty of justice”. “The petitioner had no intention to mislead the NIT or gain any unfair advantage. The certificate from CBSE is a genuine document. Thus the petitioner cannot be debarred,” the order stated.
Justice Sistani said students from villages who do not get continuous electricity cannot be deprived of their right to education. “The court cannot lose track of the fact that Delhi is not India. There are lakhs of students in rural areas, like the petitioner herein, who have potential. Students from rural background are not less intelligent than students from affluent background,” the court said.
The court took note that Yadav came from a humble background, lived in a village and did not have access either to a computer or internet. “In towns, people are familiar with computer, laptop, iPads and other forms of computers, which provide them access to vast information at their fingertips. On the contrary, students from remote villages, who do not get continuous electricity, cannot be deprived of their right to education, more so when the student has secured a seat,” the court said.