College Attendance Rules Cannot be Relaxed on Sympathy
Judgment dated 16.6.2026 of the High Court of Bombay in Writ Petition (L) NO.18476 of 2026 of Kavya Agarwal Vs. University Grants Commission and others
College Attendance Rules Cannot be Relaxed on Sympathy
College Attendance Rules are non-negotiable
College Attendance Norms Not Relaxable Despite Psychiatric Condition
Debarment for B.Sc. Examination – Shortage of Attendance
Lack of prescribed attendance requirements where such deficiency is attributable to rate and exceptional medical condition.
The claim that the parents had prevented the student to return to the college after post-discharge was raised only in the writ petition, not in contemporaneous communications. Moreover, after the post-discharge from the hospital, the appearance of the student at the thesis undermines the claim of complete incapacity.
We wish to clarify that we are not insensitive to the Petitioner’s circumstances. The material placed before us indicates that she underwent a period of considerable medical difficulty. We extend our deepest sympathies to the Petitioner and her family. Sympathy, however, cannot be a substitute for legal entitlement. A writ court is concerned with legality of decision making and not with re-writing academic regulations or creating exemptions that the governing framework itself does not contemplate.
