The Supreme Court received a petition that sought declaration of the result of a law student. The result was withheld because of short attendance caused due to the pregnancy.
Petitioner’s submission
A final year law student in Delhi University filed the Petition. The Petitioner had missed the college as she was pregnant during second year.
The Petitioner has approached Delhi High Court in 2018 as well. The Petition sought directions to DU to let her appear for the examinations. She failed to meet the criteria of 70% mandatory attendance. Consequently, she was not allowed to give the exams because of short attendance. The Petitioner took leave for almost 2 months due to the pregnancy.
The Delhi High Court held that the verdict of a Division Bench in the case of University of Delhi & Anr. V. Vandana Kandari settled the matter. The Court held that using the maternity leave as a waiver for short attendance is not accepted. An Appeal of this Order was also dismissed. The Bench stated that the Petition was rightly dismissed. The BCI regulates that all the legal educational institutions have to abide by its rules. Further, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea. However, this was with permission to attend lectures of the next semester.
In the present Plea, the contention was that the university has not released the result yet. The Petitioner has duly attended all the lectures and has appeared for all the exams.
Further, the Petitioner submitted that:
“The batchmates of the petitioner have already been granted their provisional degree, and have duly graduated from the respondent university. However, in violation of the principle of equality, the results of the petitioner are still withheld by the respondent university, and the petitioner is not granted the degree in her LL.B. course, as per law which results in huge loss in to the petitioner in her career”.
Court’s Decision
A Supreme Court Bench heard the matter. It constituted CJI SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopana and Justice V. Ramasubramanian.
The Bench held that:
“We direct that the result of the petitioner, Ankita Meena, for the IV and VI Semesters shall be declared by the respondent(s). The instant application for directions stands disposed off accordingly”.
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