SC rejects law student's plea to relax attendance norms during pregnancy

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a law student's plea for permission to appear in the Delhi University exam as she fell short of the mandatory 70% attendance due to pregnancy.

“We are not comfortable in passing an order at 1 pm for appearing in an examination that begins at 2 pm. The whole discipline of academics is lost, if we do so. We don't think we can keep on interfering into the affairs of the university,” a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Navin Sinha said.

The court also found that the Delhi University rules granting maternity leave to married woman students would not come to the aid of the LLB IVth semester student, Ankita Meena, as the law course was governed by the Bar Council of India rules which provided no such relaxation.

Meena's counsel Ashish Virmani and Himanshu Dhuper pleaded there has to be a harmonious reading of the rules. The student had an attendance of 86% in her previous semester. She could not attend her classes due to pregnancy in the IVth semester.

They said the court could provisionally allow her to appear in the examinations subject to the outcome of her pending petition before the division bench of the Delhi High Court.

On this, the bench asked, if the student had applied for maternity leave. As no positive response came, the bench told the counsel, “These are hard facts. The law is not in your favour, the rules also do not come to your aid. But you can pursue your appeal before the high court.”

The court, which first took up the matter at 12 pm, sought the presence of the university counsel, who opposed granting any relaxation to the petitioner.