Can't quit IIT, reappear in entrance test: Court

New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) Leaving an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) course midway or after confirming the admission will now cost students dear as the Delhi High Court has held that this would bar them from reappearing in the entrance test in the following year.

Justice Hima Kohli has upheld the decision of IIT authorities that students who leave a course after confirming their admission would not be allowed to appear in the next joint entrance examination (JEE).

The court's order came while dismissing a plea filed by Prateek Rohilla who withdrew his admission to IIT-Madras after paying the registration fee last year. Rohilla wanted to appear in the IIT-JEE-2012 scheduled for April 8.

The court said that such attempts by candidates, who once qualified in IIT-JEE and later sought to withdraw from the seat allocated to them, resulted in immense financial strain on the institute.

"In this attempt, the institute would have to keep a seat vacant not just in the first year but right through the course that may extend up to five years as in the present case," Justice Kohli said in an order passed last week.

"Apart from this, the course is extremely prestigious and every seat is precious and cannot be permitted to be wasted in such a manner," the court said refusing to accept Rohilla's petition.

Rohilla moved the court against the IIT decision after it informed him that he cannot reappear for IIT-JEE 2012 exam as last year he withdrew his admission after paying the registration fee.

In 2011, Rohilla after qualifying in the IIT-JEE under the Scheduled Castes category got admission in engineering design (automotive engineering), a five-year M-Tech dual degree course at IIT-Madras.

By making an online payment, Rohilla deposited Rs.20,000 towards non-refundable registration fees and confirmed the admission but did not turn up at IIT-Madras to attend classes.

Later, Rohilla applied again for the 2012 IIT entrance test under the general category. On this, IIT-Delhi, organising the test, informed him March 17 that his application for IIT-JEE-2012 stood cancelled as he was ineligible.

The letter written by IIT-Delhi to Rohilla said: "You have attempted JEE-2011 successfully and had got an admission offer, which was accepted by you by depositing the admission fee and, therefore, you are ineligible to write IIT-JEE-2012."

As per clause 3.5 of the information brochure of IIT-JEE-2012, which lays down the eligibility criterion for appearing in IIT-JEE-2012: "Candidates who have taken admission (irrespective of whether or not they continued in any of the programmes) or accepted the admission by paying the registration fee at any of the IITs, IT-BHU (Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi or ISM (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad are not eligible to appear in IIT-JEE-2012."

(Garima Tyagi can be contacted at garima.t@ians.in)