Bombay High Court Allows Barred ILS Law Students to Take Semester Exams
The Bombay High Court on Monday granted a strictly one-time relief to students of ILS Law College in Pune who were barred from appearing in their semester-end law examinations for the 2025-26 academic year due to attendance shortfalls. A bench comprising Justices Riyaz Chagla and Farhan Dubash permitted the students to take their examinations, relying on a July 21 Supreme Court order that offered a similar one-time reprieve across law colleges.
The judgment came while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by 41 students from various years of the three-year and five-year LLB programs at ILS Law College, which is affiliated with Savitribai Phule Pune University. The university had stated that the petitioners recorded attendance between 46 percent and 54 percent, falling short of the mandatory 75 percent minimum requirement.
The court clarified that the relief extends to all similarly placed students at the college who had not filed petitions, as the Supreme Court had treated them as a protected class against losing an academic year. However, the bench emphasized that its decision is strictly confined to the 2025-26 academic session and must not be construed as diluting attendance requirements for any other academic session.
The petitioners had cited a November 3, 2025 Delhi High Court ruling that prohibited law colleges from detaining students solely over attendance shortages. Although the Supreme Court later stayed that ruling prospectively in May, it issued an order in July protecting students nationwide for the 2025-26 academic year. The Bombay High Court noted that while six different high courts differed with the Delhi High Court, the Supreme Court's order was binding.
Rejecting arguments from the university and college that relief applied only to final-year students, the bench observed that students in earlier years prevented from taking exams would equally face the loss of an academic session. The High Court, which had previously granted interim protection to students who took the exams, directed the university to conduct supplementary examinations within four weeks for those who could not appear.
