Missed classes not missed chance: Kerala High Court steps in, saves law students prevented from appearing for exams

Students prejudiced

• This court bears in mind the fact that the college had failed to conduct the minimum number of hours before scheduling the examination, which it was bound to do.
• Had the college carried out the minimum number of hours and working days, there was every chance for the students to make up for the shortage in attendance and even achieve the minimum percentage of attendance or at least fall within the condonable limit.
• Therefore, petitioners have been prejudiced on account of the omission of the college to conduct the minimum number of working days.
• In such circumstances, the permission granted to the petitioners to write the second-semester examination should be regularised, and their results should be published.

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas heard the writ petition filed by nine students enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi University.

Attendance shortage

• The petitioners were students enrolled in the 3-year and 5-year LLB courses at St Dominic’s College of Law, which is affiliated to the Mahatma Gandhi University.
• Some of the students were initially deprived of an opportunity to write their examinations on account of a shortage in attendance.
• Three students obtained condonation for their attendance shortage from the University itself, and two of them were found to have sufficient attendance to write the examination.
• Three students were also identified as having attendance within the condonable limits.
• Hence, after the petitioners approached the high court, an interim direction was issued last year, directing the college to accept the examination fees of the petitioners provisionally, subject to further orders.

• It was contended by the petitioners that the college had conducted only 71 working days in total for the second semester for both courses.
• It was argued, therefore, that the petitioners were deprived of making good their shortage of attendance since the minimum required working days as per the university regulations was 90 working days.
• The counsel for the petitioners relied upon the decision in Satheesh Kumar N and others v Mahatma Gandhi University and others.
• In this case, it was stipulated that examinations for each semester can only be scheduled after a minimum of 90 working days and only after the completion of the requisite number of lecture classes, tutorials, moot court and seminars can the examination for each of the semesters be scheduled.
• The minimum hours stipulated by the Bar Council of India must be completed before the commencement of the examinations for each of the semester.

Delhi High Court’s directions

• Last year, the Delhi High Court had issued a series of directions in relation to mandatory attendance norms existing in the legal educational institutions.
• While issuing directions to the Bar Council of India (BCI), the bench asked it to undertake a re-evaluation of the mandatory attendance norms for the 3-year and 5-year LLB courses in India in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and also the 2003 University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations, which contemplate flexibility in attendance requirements.
• The high court was deciding a suo motu case, initiated by the Supreme Court, in relation to the death of law student Sushant Rohilla by suicide in 2016 after being allegedly forced to repeat an academic year due to lack of requisite attendance.