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In a reprieve to the 73 students who had been expelled for underperformance by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, the Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday directed the administration of the premier institute to respond to a petition challenging its decision. The court also allowed the students to appear in a re-examination scheduled to be held from Thursday, if they wanted.
The interim order was issued by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia on a petition filed by a group of 46 expelled students challenging the IIT Senate’s recent decision to expel 73 students. The order came on the ground that no other IIT in the country had the rule to expel students scoring less than five Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA) in semester examinations.
On June 15, the institute had expelled these students, including more than 62 from various BTech programmes, saying they had earned less than the required points on the CGPA scale.
In July, the students had filed a mercy petition for re-admission, which was rejected by the IIT Senate.
The court asked the IIT Roorkee administration to file its counter-affidavit before July 21, when the case has been scheduled for next hearing, according to Arvind Vashisth, counsel for the students.
