The Supreme Court of India Wednesday expressed concern over a Delhi High Court order permitting law students to attend exams even after they attended classes in the past with a low attendance rate and suggested that it would undermine the academic discipline in legal education institutions.
A bench headed by Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi agreed to look at the correctness of the Delhi High court or Performs. Order impugned in a petition filed by Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). The apex court, however, refused to put on hold for now the operation of the judgment.
At the hearing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, on behalf of NMIMS, contended that the High Court had rendered attendance norms redundant and caused serious issues for law schools all over the country. He raised the issue that students were missing school, and at the same time expecting to show up for exams.
Supreme Court Justice Shrawan Kumar, who presided over the bench, did not share this worry, but said that if attendance is not taken as a norm at law colleges, the hostels may turn into ‘mere boarding and lodging places instead of centres for academic teaching and training in the legal profession’.
This is now connected to a set of pending petitions against a set of rules of the Bar Council of India (BCI) on attendance, requirement of criminal background check of lawyers and restrictions on simultaneous academic courses for law students.
The court added that it will look into the matter gravely and take up the correct legal stance on the compulsory attendance requirement imperative of law schools later on.