The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment on a batch of petitions challenging the Delhi High Court's ruling that law students cannot be stopped from appearing in examinations or progressing academically solely because they have fallen short of minimum attendance requirements.
A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Augustine George Masih heard the challenge on October 6, 2026. The petitions include challenges by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). The Court has now concluded the hearing and reserved its verdict.
Background
The dispute arises from a November 3, 2025 judgment of the Delhi High Court in a suo motu matter concerning the death of law student Sushant Rohilla. The High Court had examined the manner in which attendance requirements were being applied in legal education.
The High Court held that a student enrolled in a recognised law college or university should not be detained from an examination or prevented from further academic progression merely because of attendance shortage. It also directed the BCI to reconsider the attendance framework for three-year and five-year LL.B. courses.
The Delhi High Court further directed that law colleges could not prescribe attendance requirements above those fixed by the BCI. Pending reconsideration of the norms, students falling short of attendance could still take examinations, although their final marks could be reduced by up to 5%, or by 0.33% where the institution followed a CGPA system.
The BCI and NMIMS challenged the High Court's directions before the Supreme Court. The proceedings subsequently led the Supreme Court, on May 26, 2026, to stay paragraph 249 of the Delhi High Court judgment prospectively. That paragraph contained the directions preventing institutions from detaining students from examinations merely because of attendance shortage.
The Supreme Court later granted one-time protection to students whose academic sessions were already continuing when the Delhi High Court delivered its judgment on November 3, 2025. Such students were permitted to appear in final examinations despite attendance shortages, with supplementary examinations also permitted in specified circumstances.
The issue before the Supreme Court therefore includes the extent to which mandatory attendance requirements can be enforced in legal education and whether the Delhi High Court was justified in restricting the consequences of attendance shortage.
After hearing the parties, the Supreme Court reserved judgment in the matter on October 6, 2026. The Bench also permitted the parties to file written briefs within two weeks.
The Supreme Court has not yet pronounced its final decision on the validity of the Delhi High Court's directions concerning mandatory attendance for law students.
Case Title: SVKMS Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies v. Bar Council of India
Case Number: SLP(Crl) No. 9450/2026
