Madras HC Declines Student's Plea To Condone Attendance Shortage, Says It Would Amount To Mocking Students Who Attend Classes Regularly

The Madras High Court recently refused relief to a student who had approached the court seeking condonation of deficiency of attendance. Calling him an “unfortunate student who wanted to ride two horses” the bench of Justice R Subramanian and Justice C Kumarappan noted that if the court chose to sympathize with the student, it would only be misplaced sympathy and amount to mocking students who attend the classes regularly. The court also added that the courts could not interfere in academic matters and had to leave such matters to the wisdom of academicians. “It has been repeatedly held that in academic matters this Court will not interfere and leave it to the wisdom of the academicians. The UGC Regulation requires a particular percentage of attendance and if a student does not possess that percentage of attendance, the only result could be the students cannot appear for the examination. As rightly pointed out by the learned counsel for the University if this Court chooses to sympathize with such students, it will be only mis-placed sympathy and it would amount to mocking of students who attended the classes regularly,” the court said. The appellant K Shrish who was pursuing II year B.Com had approached the court after the University refused to permit him to write examinations citing shortage of attendance which was beyond the condonable 10%. He had approached the court seeking directions to the Controller of Examination, The Dean, and the Head of the Department of SRM Institute of Science and Technology to permit him to write the 3rd-semester examination and to permit him to attend classes for the academic year 2024-25. The single judge had refused relief stating that since the student did not have the condonable 65% attendance, the University had rightly refused permission to write exams and removed him from the rolls. Since the single judge, dismissed the plea, the student filed the appeal. Though the student relied upon an earlier decision of the Madras High Court to argue that the rule of law should not be applied rigidly in such cases, the court held that the observation was made taking into consideration the peculiar facts of that case and could not be treated as a precedent. The court noted that the student did not have sufficient attendance enabling him to write the examinations. The court noted that as per the UGC regulation, the student required 75% attendance and also provided a condonable 10% limit. This meant that a student should have had minimum 65% attendance to enable him to appear for examinations. In the present case, the court noted that even after addinga 10% condonable limit, the student would get only 67% attendance, which would still be 8% less than the required attendance of 75%. Thus, finding no infirmity in the order of the single judge, the court was not inclined to interfere and dismissed the appeal. However, the court added that of the student is willing to redo the course by paying the required fee, the University can take the student back into the rolls and ensure that the student gets a good ambiance for continuing studies. Counsel for Appellant: Mr. S. Silambanan, Senior Advocate for Mr. K. Vasanthanayagan Counsel for Respondent: Mrs. P. R. Umamaheswari Case Title: K. Shrish v The Controller Of Examination Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 64 Case No: W.A.No.3487 of 2024Click Here To Read/Download The Judgment

Madras HC Declines Student's Plea To Condone Attendance Shortage, Says It Would Amount To Mocking Students Who Attend Classes Regularly

Upasana Sajeev

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