The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday extended a one-time protection against attendance-related detention to students of Indian Law Society’s (ILS’s) Law College who were prevented from appearing for their semester-end examinations during the 2025-26 academic session solely because of shortage of attendance. The court said that the benefit would apply not only to the approximately 41 petitioners before it but also to other similarly placed students of the college who met the conditions laid down by the Supreme Court (SC).
A division bench of justice Farhan P Dubash and justice R I Chagla passed the order on August 10 in a batch of petitions arising from the college’s decision to withhold the students’ admit cards and prevent them from appearing for examinations because they did not meet the prescribed attendance requirement.
The HC in its order stated: “The petitioners herein, whose academic session was ongoing on November 3, 2025 and who were prevented from appearing for the semester-end examinations during the academic session 2025–26 solely on account of shortage of attendance, shall be entitled to the one-time protection granted by the hon’ble SC by its order dated July 21, 2026. The benefit of the aforesaid one-time protection shall also be extended to other similarly placed students of the college…”
“The university and the college shall, in coordination with each other, arrange and conduct a supplementary examination for such petitioners and other similarly placed students of the college who were unable to appear for their semester-end examinations, either wholly or partially, during the academic session 2025–26 solely on account of shortage of attendance. The supplementary examinations shall be conducted as expeditiously as possible and, in any event, within a period of four weeks from the date on which this judgment is uploaded,” the HC order further stated.
The students (petitioners), studying in different years of the three-year and five-year law courses, had attendance ranging from 46% to 54.37%. They had submitted their examination forms and paid the prescribed fees, and their admit cards had been generated on April 25, 2026. However, the college withheld their admit cards citing attendance shortage. The students subsequently sought condonation and permission to appear for the examinations but the college maintained its decision following which, they approached the Bombay HC.
The key issue before the Bombay HC was the applicability of the SC’s July 21, 2026 order, which granted one-time protection to law students whose academic session was ongoing when the Delhi HC delivered its November 3, 2025 judgment in the Sushant Rohilla case. The SC order in question had directed that such students should not be detained or prevented from appearing for the final examinations of that academic session and that students who had been unable to appear, either wholly or partially, should be allowed to take a supplementary examination for that session. The Bombay HC rejected the college’s contention that the SC protection was limited only to students in the final year or final semester of their law course. It stated that the SC protection applied to students in different years and semesters, provided their academic session was ongoing on November 3, 2025 and they were prevented from appearing for their examinations solely because of attendance shortage. For students who could not appear for their examinations, either wholly or partially, the court directed ILS Law College and Savitribai Phule Pune University to conduct supplementary examinations for the relevant subjects. The supplementary examinations will be treated as examinations for the 2025-26 academic session, and students will not be required to repeat the semester merely because of the attendance shortfall covered by the one-time protection.
