Delhi HC seeks response from Centre, BCI on student's plea for waiving attendance requirement
Aug 25, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 25 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response from the Centre, Bar Council of India and a university on a student's plea challenging a single-judge bench order dismissing his plea seeking a waiver of minimum attendance requirement and allowing him to sit for exams.
A single-judge bench had earlier rejected the student's plea stating that there was a division bench order of Delhi High Court which had held that in professional courses, the requirement of attaining minimum attendance was non-negotiable.
The division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, while issuing notice to respondents, also asked the varsity concerned to confirm when the first semester commenced last year and when the exams were held.
The High Court was also informed by advocate Kamal Mehta, counsel for the petitioner Abhishek Singh, that representations were made to the varsity to allow the student to sit for the first semester exams despite the shortage of attendance in view of his continuing illness.
But, no response was received from the university and later he was told his name would be struck off the varsity rolls, Mehta submitted.
According to the plea, he was unable to complete the attendance requirement because he was not only suspected of having typhoid but there was also a possibility that he was suffering from tuberculosis.
The court, while issuing notice, told the varsity and the BCI that there should be some mechanism to take care of students like the petitioner, who since March 2017 has been suffering from an illness, "for which there was no clear and certain diagnosis instead of creating a wall".
