More than 300 final-year students from Government Law College in Mumbai, or more than 62% of the entire batch, were accused of being "attendance defaulters" and summoned to the campus to request permission to take the final semester examinations just one day before they were due.
After Supreme Court lawyer Manasi Bhushan shared a letter from a final-year law student asking for assistance, the incident became public knowledge. According to the student, the Mumbai Law College's faculty members skipped classes, and the attendance recording device wasn't working.
Students claimed that the administration had not followed Mumbai University's regulations, which call for warning letters to be sent to defaulters twice a semester, parent/guardian meetings to be held in the middle of the semester, and all procedures pertaining to defaulters to be completed at least 10 days before exams start.
A day before the examination, Bhushan called on GLC professors, alumni, and lawyers particularly those working in the Bombay High Court to assist these students who are being "forced" to locate their attendance records and system errors. Exams for the semester at Government Law College in Mumbai will start on April 16.
Mumbai University: guidelines
The attendance committee makes sure that the records are kept up to date and that the defaulters receive warning letters at least twice each semester in accordance with Mumbai University's regulations.
The committee is required to call defaulters and their parent or guardian "to meet the Convener, attendance committee in the middle of the semester with a view to make the consequences adequately clear while understanding the difficulties if any and encouraging the learner to comply with the requirement of the attendance." This is in addition to providing students with an attendance briefing during the admission period.
