To condone attendance shortage, court must be convinced that illness disabled student from attending 60% classes: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has ruled that for condonation of attendance shortage on medical grounds, a court must be satisfied that the illness disabled the student from attending classes, even it was to the extent of 60% of the classes (Yash Yadav v. CBSE)..A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan held, ."It ought to be kept in mind that minimum required attendance should be maintained by the students.".The Court was dealing with an appeal preferred by a student (appellant) against an order passed by a Single Judge Bench. .The Single Judge Bench had refused to condone his shortage of attendance on the ground that his case did not fall under the category of exceptional circumstances in Clause 14 of the Examination Bye-Laws, 1995 framed by the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE)..The appellant was a student of Class X who, on account of health issues, was able to attend only 43% of the classes. For a period of six days, he was also admitted in hospital for treatment of “Enteric Fever with AFI with Dehydration”. .As per the CBSE rules, a student is eligible to sit for examinations only if he/she attended a minimum of 75% classes in the academic session..The appellant argued that the Single Judge failed to appreciate the fact that he was suffering from illness. Relying on Examination Bye-Laws Nos. 13 and 14, which give power to the Chairman of CBSE to condone shortage upto 15% in case of serious illness such as TB, AIDS, cancer etc, the appellant stated that the provision must be interpreted liberally to include his condition. .The Division Bench, however, refused to accept the appellant's contention, ruling, ."Howsoever liberally the Bye-law is to be interpreted, the Court must be satisfied that the illness of the student concerned was of a nature which disabled him/her from attending classes, even to the extent of 60% of classes. The learned Single Judge has rightly found that the material placed by the petitioner was woefully inadequate to arrive at this conclusion.".Considering the documents regarding the appellant's illness and the fact that he was hospitalized only for six days, the Court concluded that the appellant's case was not covered under the exceptional circumstance carved out by CBSE..The Court also noted that exceptions have already been carved out by CBSE in its Examination Bye-Laws to take into account normal exigencies for students having 60% attendance. It thus held, "It should be kept in mind that Court cannot do charity contrary to the legal position.".Finding no substance in the appeal, the Court dismissed it. The appellant was represented by Advocate Apurb Lal. Advocate Atul Kuma appeared for CBSE..Read the order: