The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that there is a need to reconsider the rules of compulsory attendance in colleges and universities, as the teaching-learning methods have changed a lot after the COVID-19 pandemic. The court said that the mental health of the students is also affected, so this has to be kept in mind while considering the attendance requirements and there is a need to streamline the role of grievance redressal mechanism and support system in educational institutions.
A bench of Justices Pratibha M Singh and Amit Sharma said that the issue of whether attendance requirement should be made compulsory in undergraduate and postgraduate courses should be resolved at a higher level rather than limiting it to a specific course, college, university or institute. The bench said that instead of penalizing students for low attendance, they should be encouraged to attend classes.
The court said it is inclined to constitute a committee to study all these factors and submit a report before it so that some uniform methodology can be evolved for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and attendance requirements thereof.
The high court was hearing a petition initiated by the Supreme Court in September 2016, involving a case of alleged suicide by a student of Amity Law University. In March 2017, the case was transferred to the Delhi High Court.
Sushant Rohilla, a third-year law student at Amity University, hanged himself at his home on August 10, 2016 after the university allegedly barred him from appearing in semester exams for lack of required attendance. He had left behind a note saying he was a failure and did not want to live.
