Desk Correspondent , New Delhi - The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed serious reservations regarding a 2025 Delhi High Court judgment that prohibited law schools from barring students from exams due to low attendance. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and Vijay Bishnoi issued a notice on a plea by NMIMS challenging the ruling, observing that such a lenient view could turn prestigious institutions into mere "boarding and lodging facilities" where classroom learning is ignored. While the bench declined to stay the High Court’s order for now, it tagged the matter with a pending batch of petitions to establish a definitive legal position.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing NMIMS, argued that the High Court's decision rendered attendance norms "meaningless" and created nationwide academic chaos. The university contended that classroom instruction, moot courts, and tutorials are essential to legal training and cannot be replaced by external internships. They further emphasized that the Bar Council of India (BCI) already prescribes a 70% attendance requirement under the Rules of Legal Education, which is necessary to maintain institutional discipline and professional standards.

The controversy originated from a November 2025 Delhi High Court ruling, which sought to prevent student mental distress following a 2016 suicide linked to attendance harassment. That court had urged the BCI to modernize its "rigid" regulations in line with the National Education Policy 2020. However, the Supreme Court noted that the ruling has since opened "floodgates" of litigation, with the bench questioning the purpose of high-quality faculty if students are no longer incentivized to attend lectures.