Law Students Should Not be Barred from Exams due to Low Attendance: Delhi HC issues Guidelines
Delhi HC has issued guidelines stating that Law students should not be barred from exams due to low attendance. It said that the college can conduct extra classes for the students who are running low on attendance.
Law Students Should Not be Barred from Exams due to Low Attendance: Delhi HC issues Guidelines - Delhi High Court issued guidelines on Monday that stated that the shortage of students’ attendance should not hinder their academic careers. This decision came in after the suicide case of Sushant Rohilla, who was a Law student of Amity University. While a detailed copy of this judgement is due, the conditional approval of the decision described that the attendance norms should not be prescribed by the law colleges.
The bench that made this decision included Justices Pratiba M Singh and Amit Sharma. They issued the order that no student can be prohibited from taking their semester exams and promotion to the next semester just because of low attendance. The extension of the decision included that the college can either reduce the scores by a minimum of 5% (in case the college follows a marking system), or 0.33% (if it follows the CGPA grading system).
The court further said that the details about the student’s attendance must be provided to the students and their parents. The college was also directed to conduct extra physical or online classes for the students whose attendance falls short.
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The court also mandated all the educational institutions, law colleges, and varsities to constitute the Grievance Redressal Commissions (GRCs). The University Grants Commission is required to modify its regulations to ensure that 51% members of the GRC are students. Further adding to it, the court said, “There must be full-time representation of students”.
It also told the BCI to change the rules for college affiliation to make sure that they include information about how many counsellors and psychiatrists are there to help students. Quoting the court, it said, BCI shall take a re-evaluation of mandatory appearance in three-year and five-year law courses…It shall incorporate and give credit to moot courts.”
The court also ordered the Bar Council of India to work on facilitating details about internships available to students, especially to those who come from underprivileged backgrounds. It suggested that the BCI should publish the names of senior advocates, law firms, and other bodies who are looking for interns, so that seeking an internship gets easier for students.
The court issued these guidelines while settling a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) that was started after the 2017 suicide case of Sushant Rohilla, who had committed suicide because he was forced to repeat a whole year because of low attendance. Post issuing the guidelines, the court plauded the work done by amicus curiae - Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, as well as the Rohiilla family. The court said, “They (Rohilla’s family & friends) have exhibited enormous resilience and deserve credit for fighting the cause.”
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