Delhi High Court asks Bar Council of India stand on attendance norms in law courses

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to convene a virtual meeting of its legal education committee to finalise its stand on the requirement of attendance in law courses.

A bench of Justices Pratibha M Singh and Amit Sharma was hearing a case stemming from the death of a law student who died by suicide in 2016 for allegedly being barred from writing his semester exam due to shortage of attendance.

The court had previously questioned the mandatory attendance norms and asked the BCI to file an affidavit on October 14.

Sushant Rohilla, who was a third year law student of Amity Law School had died by suicide on August 10, 2016, leaving behind a note which allegedly stated that he was a failure and did not wish to live.

The present petition was initiated by the Supreme Court in September 2016 following the incident but the case was subsequently transferred to the high court in March 2017.

On October 14, the bench directed the BCI's legal education committee to hold a meeting and file its affidavit within two weeks.

Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing as the amicus curiae, informed the court about several cases of suicides being reported in different institutions.

The court then asked him to place a note on record regarding the same and listed the matter for hearing on November 6.

It granted further time to Amity Law School to state its stand on the granting ex-gratia compensation to the family of the deceased.

The lawyer for Amity Law School said the institution was not at fault, adding the parents of the deceased student had duly been notified about the shortage of attendance.

The court further asked the Centre to inform about the outcome of a stakeholder consultation with respect to having mandatory attendance in higher education.

The court, which earlier directed a consultation to be held on the issue, observed that a "short note" filed by the Centre did not capture the outcome of the meeting held on October 7 with all the statutory councils, the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education.

The court had previously expressed an imminent need to take a re-look at the mandatory attendance norms in colleges and universities as the teaching methods had substantially changed post the COVID-19 pandemic.

It had said the mental health of students needs to be borne in mind while considering attendance requirements. The high court further noted the role of grievance redressal mechanisms and support system in educational institutions ought to be streamlined.