In a major relief to the law students of Faculty of Law, the Delhi HC has set aside an order detaining them to sit in exams due to low attendance.

The single-judge bench of Justice Rekha Palli said that deficit of attendance was resulted due to incompetence of Faculty of Law to carry out minimum classes as mandated under the Bar Council of India (BCI) rules.

“…it becomes apparent that the Faculty of Law has during the Concerned Semester, reliably conducted only 230 hours of class, which is approximately only 50% of the mandatory requirement under Rule 10 of the BCI Rules of conducting at least 450 hours of class during a semester of the regular unitary LLB course. Needless to say, this is certainly a most regrettable state of affairs, especially for a leading centre of legal education in the capital of the country such as the Faculty of Law,” Justice Palli said.

Justice Palli further directed: “In the meanwhile, the Faculty of Law must allow those of its students who were detained from giving their end-semester examinations due to shortage of attendance and could not be granted any interim relief, to take their supplementary examinations for the Concerned Semester. However, it is made clear that a student’s result in respect of the said supplementary examinations shall be declared only if he/she meets the attendance criteria prescribed under the BCI Rules after attending the extra classes/tutorials held by the Faculty of Law pursuant to the directions of this court.”

—India Legal Bureau