ILS Law College: Students move Bombay HC over exam denial on attendance shortage

A group of law students from Indian Law Society’s(ILS) Law College, Pune have moved to Bombay High Court after being stopped from appearing in the ongoing semester examinations over attendance shortage, despite claiming that they had crossed the 50% attendance mark and had valid reasons for any deficiency. As per a by Bar and Bench, the petition has been filed by students enrolled in both the five-year integrated law programme and the three-year LLB course.

Bar and Bench reported that the matter came up before a division bench on April 30, with the next hearing scheduled for May 4. The students have challenged the refusal of Savitribai Phule Pune University to condone their attendance shortage under Ordinance 70, which reportedly permits relaxation of up to 20% in cases involving illness or other unavoidable circumstances.

As cited in the report, the students argued that while the university had officially fixed April 30 as the end of the semester, the college internally treated March 14 as the attendance cut-off date. They said this early freeze significantly affected their final attendance calculation.

Students allege selective denial

The petitioners further claimed that no timely warning or periodic notice about attendance deficiency was issued to them. Instead, they were allowed to complete several exam formalities, including:

• Filling online examination forms
• Depositing semester examination fees
• Receiving university-issued hall tickets

As per the plea, these steps created a reasonable assumption that their attendance issue had either been regularised or condoned.

The report noted that despite all the formalities the students alleged that only in April were they orally informed that they would not be permitted to sit for the examinations. The report adds that the petition also accuses the college of discriminatory treatment, claiming some students with similar attendance levels were allegedly given relief after recalculation.