Stakeholder consultation within 2 weeks: Delhi HC on mandatory attendance in colleges

The court was acting on a petition originally taken up by the Supreme Court in 2016, following the alleged suicide case of a student at Amity Law University

The Delhi high court on Monday asked the secretary, ministry of education to hold a stakeholder consultation on whether attendance should be made compulsory in educational institutions across the country offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

October 14 is the next date of hearing. (File photo)

“The Secretary Ministry of Education dealing with higher education will commence a stakeholder consultation on the question whether attendance norms are to be made compulsory in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Let the consultation process commence within a period of two weeks,” a bench of justices Prathibha Singh and Amit Sharma said in the order.

The court was acting on a petition originally taken up by the Supreme Court in 2016, following the alleged suicide case of a student at Amity Law University, who was barred from taking exams due to insufficient attendance. The Supreme Court transferred the case to the high court in March 2017.

Issuing notices to the Centre, the National Medical Commission, and the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the court had emphasised that the current approach to mandatory attendance is being viewed differently by the younger generation, which contrasts with traditional perspectives on education.

During the hearing on Monday, the counsel for the Bar Council of India (BCI) submitted that though the BCI Rules provide for mandatory attendance, the council is willing to deliberate on the in the norms after placing the same before the legal education committee, that prescribes to be followed by the law colleges.

The Centre represented by additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma submitted that large scale consolation would be required with various stakeholders including the regulatory bodies such as University Grants Commission (UGC), National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE), National Council for Vocational Education and Training. The law officer also submitted that consultation would also be required from teachers and students.

While the counsel for UGC submitted that under the new education policy there are various relaxations that have been prescribed and sought time to file a detailed affidavit in this regards, the National Medical Commission submitted that relaxation of attendance for UG and PG courses was done during pandemic and students were allowed to attend online classes, in clinical training, the attendance is compulsory considering the nature of the profession.

In its order, the court also directed the UGC and secretary, Ministry of Education to issue a circular mandating all the educational institutions providing UG and PG courses across the country to set up a grievance redressal mechanism within two weeks.

Terming the incident as “unfortunate” and “a systemic failure on the college’s part”, the court also asked the counsel for Amity to take instructions on the aspect of granting ex gratia compensation to the kin of the deceased and fixed October 14 as the next date of hearing.

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