Mumbai: The Bombay High Court recently intervened in the attendance issue of the Indian Law Society's College Pune after the petitioner, Nisarga Khanderao, a student of the college filed a case against the institute. She was not allowed to appear for the examination because of the low percentage of attendance. The student had 53 per cent attendance and the college’s rule of minimum percent was 50. Khanderao’s per centage of attendance surpassed the minimum per centage of attendance decided by the college for its students. The case was filed against the institution by the student and the Bombay High Court passed the judgement in her favour, allowing her to give the exam. The judgment was passed on May 18 and the exam was on May 19. The student who was also the petitioner was in the Five-Year B.B.A. LL.B. course and the exam was conducted by the college. The ILS College counsel S. S. Kanetkar opposed the petitioner saying that the student had approached the HC belatedly, particularly when the action was taken on April 20 and the examinations were already underway. However, it is brought to notice that the court, by orders dated May 4 in a Writ Petition and connected matters, permitted similarly situated students to appear for the examinations, subject to the outcome of the petitions, taking into consideration that their attendance was above 50 per cent. The bench of Justice Sandesh Patil and Gautam Ankhad said in their orders that the petitioner also claims to satisfy the minimum threshold of 50 per cent attendance. “We are prima facie of the view that limited interim protection deserves to be granted so as to avoid irreversible academic prejudice at this stage,” the bench said. The student was permitted to appear for the remaining examinations. However, such permission shall be purely provisional and is subject to the final outcome of the present writ petition. “The student’s name was listed in the defaulter’s list. We had challenged that decision,” said her lawyer Uday Warunjikar.
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