The Delhi High Court on Monday (November 3, 2025) ruled that no law student in the country should be detained from sitting in examinations due to lack of minimum attendance.
The High Court, which passed a slew of directions in relation to mandatory attendance requirement in law colleges, asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to modify the mandatory attendance norms.
Due to shortage of attendance, student’s promotion to next semester class cannot be withheld, it said.
A bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Amit Sharma passed the order while disposing of a suo motu petition, initiated by the Supreme Court, in relation to the death of law student Sushant Rohilla in 2016 after allegedly being barred from sitting for the semester exams due to lack of requisite attendance.
“Having heard at length the submission of all stakeholders in this case over the course of hearing and having considered the stark realities that have come to the surface, this court is strongly of the view that norms education in general and legal education in particular, cannot be made so stringent so as to lead to mental trauma, let alone death of a student,” the bench said while pronouncing the verdict.
