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The students, whose attendance fell short, were barred from appearing in the Term End Examination and university asked them to attend remedial classes, paying Rs. 7500 per subject, to enhance attendance to become eligible to appear for re-examination.
A total of 78 debarred students of the Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh have filed a plea before the High Court seeking permission to appear in re-examination without attending remedial classes.
The students have alleged that they were barred from appearing in the Term End Examination owing to their attendance being less than 75% which was apparently a fault on the part of the university. Their plea states that the university itself failed miserably in providing the required number of lectures to be taken in an academic session.
"21 hours of lectures have been conducted per week and as per academic calendar for the session 2021-22, total number of operating weeks are 13, which when multiplied with 21 gives to a total of 273 hours of lecture which is deficit of 159 hours of lectures as per the BCI mandate," the plea reads.
Moreover, the students state that the university is demanding Rs. 7500 for each subject to attend the remedial classes arranged by it for the debarred students in order to attain 75% attendance in the concerned subject and to become eligible to appear for re-exam.
"The imposition of fee of ₹ 7500/- per subject is highly detrimental to the idea of imparting quality education," the plea contends.
The plea alleges that the university is simply trying to fill its pocket under the garb of remedial classes and intentionally trying to harass the petitioners by compelling them to attend remedial classes.
The Dharmashastra National Law University was established in the year 2018. In the wake of the Covid19 pandemic, the university functioned in virtual mode for almost two years.
In March of this year, the university reopened the 2021-22 academic session for the even semester in Hybrid mode. In April, the students were informed about the commencement of compulsory offline classes from April 11. Every student had to appear for these offline classes.
Initially, the last instructional day of this even semester was declared as June 10, however, due to falling short of the number of lectures required to be taken in a semester, it was extended to June 17 by the university.
Students who could not maintain 75% attendance in this semester, were barred from appearing in the Term End Examination. Thereafter, on July 27, the university issued a notice asking debarred students to appear for online remedial classes commencing from 01/08/2022 to 16/8/2022 and Offline remedial classes from 17/08/2022 to 31/08/2022 to enhance individual’s attendance to become eligible to appear for re-examination. However, the student had to pay Rs. 7500 for each subject to take the remedial classes.
Against this decision of the University, the students have moved the high court. Advocate Vivek tankha is representing the petitioners in the matter.
Case Title: Sumit Parashar and Ors. v. State of MP and Ors.
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