TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (11) TMI 1749
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....), with a common prayer that they be promoted to the next semester, i.e. the 9th semester, based on the credits obtained by them during the academic year 2018-19 and thereafter, be permitted to appear for the 8th semester end term examinations in the next even semester, i.e. the 10th semester, as supplementary papers. 2. By the impugned judgment, the learned Single Judge has allowed both the writ petitions with the following directions:- "Conclusion: - 21. Thus, for the foregoing reasons, the captioned petitions are disposed of with the following directions:- i. The respondents will promote the petitioners to the 9th semester and in this behalf make suitable adjustments in the form of extra classes, if found necessary. ii. The respondents will inform the petitioners as to how they can take extra classes for the 8th semester and when they can sit for the exam qua the said semester. iii. The petitioners will file undertaking in the form of an affidavit with the Principal, VIPS to the effect that they will attend t....
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....on were declared by the appellant/GGSIPU on 30.7.2019. Prior thereto, classes for the 9th semester of the fifth year had already commenced on 15.7.2019. However, Naincy approached the Court for relief only in October, 2019. 5. Coming next to the other student, Prateek, the reason for detaining him in the 8th semester in the fourth academic year was the same i.e., shortage of attendance. The impugned judgment notices the fact that Prateek had participated in various moot court competitions and music competitions between February, 2016 to October, 2018, as would be apparent from the certificates of appreciation filed with the writ petition. During the 8th semester, he had interned for one month between mid January to mid February 2019 with an advocate, who had issued him a certificate. But there is no explanation offered for not attending the classes for the remaining four months of the 8th semester. Unlike Naincy, Prateek had filed the writ petition in August, 2019. 6. Shorn of other peripheral pleas taken by the respondents/students in the writ petition to assail their detention order, the main thrust of the arguments addressed by their counsel before the learned Single Judge piv....
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.... detain the respondents/students, even if they had secured the minimum 50% credit score in the fourth academic year. 8. It was also put forth on behalf of the appellant/GGSIPU that the attendance rules have been framed by the University in consonance with Rule 12 of the Bar Council of India Rules of Legal Education, 2008 (in short, "BCI Rules") which stipulates that no student of any degree program would be allowed to take the end semester test in a subject, if the said student has not attended a minimum of 70% of the classes held in the subject concerned as also the moot court room exercise, tutorials and practical training conducted in the subject, taken together. The Competent Authority can however reduce the minimum required 70% attendance to 65% in special circumstances. To buttress the aforesaid arguments, reliance has been placed by the appellant/GGSIPU on the following judgments:- (i) Commissioner of Income Tax vs. Hindustan Bulk Carriers reported as (2003) 3 SCC 57 (ii) Vipin Sharma vs. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University reported as 2009 SCC OnLine Delhi 2037. (iii) Sukriti Upadhyay vs. University of Delhi....
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....mic year. It was also argued by the learned counsel for the respondents/students that the language used in Clause 11.3(v)(ii) of Ordinance 11 makes it evident that only those students will fail to get promoted to the next academic year, who do not have the requisite percentage of credits coupled with the minimum required attendance and in the instant case, it is not in dispute that both the respondents/students had obtained the minimum 50% of the total credits in the academic year in question and therefore, they deserve to be promoted to the next academic year. To substantiate his submission that where there is an ambiguity in the wording of a statute, the rule of contra proferentem ought to be invoked, the decision in Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd. vs. New India Insurance Co. Ltd. reported as (2016) 15 SCC 315, was cited by learned counsel as a case in point. 11. We have given our thoughtful consideration to the arguments advanced by learned counsel for the parties and carefully examined the impugned judgment in the light of the relevant rules and the case law cited. 12. Though no challenge was laid by the respondents/students to any provision of Or....
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....emester. The minimum required attendance of 75% can be reduced by 5%, at the discretion of the competent authority, for reasons to be recorded. The said Clause makes it amply clear that no student, who has less than 70% aggregate attendance, shall be allowed to appear in the semester term end examination. It also states that in respect of programmes that are regulated by a statutory regulatory body, which in the present case, is the Bar Council of India, if such a body provides for any specific guideline for attendance, the same shall be applicable, as may be approved by the Board of Studies of the concerned school. 14. The Bar Council of India being the regulatory body, has notified Rules of Legal Education, 2008 (in short, 'BCI Rules') for maintaining standard of legal education and for recognition of degrees in law for enrolment as an advocate. Rule 12 of the BCI Rules which is relevant for the purpose of deciding the present appeals, is extracted below:- "12. End Semester Test No student of any of the degree program shall be allowed to take the end semester test in a subject if the student concerned has not attended minimum of 70....
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....its to be promoted to the next academic year. Such a student shall not be required to repeat any course that student has already completed successfully. On acquisition of sufficient credits for promotion, such students who have taken at least one academic break, shall be automatically readmitted in the regular batch of that academic year of the concerned programme. The Syllabi and Scheme of Teaching and Examination applicable to such students on readmission (from the year of readmission) shall be Scheme as offered to the students of the regular batch. If the total credits of all courses offered to the student is less than the minimum credits of the regular batch students then the minimum credits for the award of the degree of such students shall be as proposed by the Controller of Examinations and approved by the Vice-Chancellor otherwise it shall be equal to the minimum credits of the regular batch in which the student has studied the final year of the programme. Academic break shall be applicable only to students 1. Who are detained due to shortage of attendance. &nb....
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....student fails to get promoted to the next academic year on account of deficiency in the required credits, as mentioned in Clause 11.3(v)(i) OR (b) When a student has been detained in a particular academic year. 18. The aforesaid sub-rule further clarifies that once a student is declared to have taken an academic break, he will be permitted to repeat such examinations of the existing academic year in which he has 'failed' or has been 'detained' for being promoted to the next academic year. A maximum of two academic breaks are available to a student to complete the academic programme and on exhaustion of two academic breaks, his admission will stand cancelled in terms of Clause 4.3 of Ordinance 11. Para 3 of Clause 11.3(v) (ii) reiterates the aforesaid position and mentions the following three circumstances in which an academic break shall be applicable to students:- (a) When students are detained due to shortage of attendance (b) When students do not attain the required credits for promotion (c) When students wish to drop the acquired credits of an academic year and r....
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....ad commenced on 07.01.2019 and ended on 31.05.2019. 218 classes were conducted in the said semester for the courses taken by Naincy. We have been informed that Naincy has attended only 15 classes out of 218 classes. If we exclude the period during which she could not attend the classes on account of the injury suffered by her, between 07.01.2019 to 08.02.2019, then the number of classes conducted would stand proportionately reduced to 93 but we find that she had attended only 11 classes. Worked out on a percentage basis, Naincy has attended 6.88% classes in the aggregate of all the classes taken by her in the 8th semester and upon exclusion of one month during which period she was grounded, her attendance was 11.82%. As for the other respondent, Prateek, out of 207 classes conducted for the courses opted for by him in the 8th semester, he had attended only two classes, which boils down to 0.97% attendance. 22. In the face of such a poor attendance, can it be urged that shortage of attendance should be given a complete go-bye and the respondents/students should be promoted to the next academic year solely on the basis of 50% credits scored by them in the existing academic year? To ....
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....be some inexactitude in the language used. [Refer: CIT v. S. Teja Singh AIR 1959 SC 352; Salmon v. Duncombe (1886) 11 AC 627 & Curtis v. Stovin (1889) 22 QBD 513)]. Principles of interpretation require that a statute must be read as a whole and one provision of the Act ought to be construed with reference to the other provisions of the very same Act so as to make the whole statute, a consistent enactment. The court is also duty bound to examine the intention of the legislature while interpreting a statute not merely by directing its attention to a particular clause, but by construing the entire statute as it stands. That would require the court to compare a particular clause with other parts of the law and keep in mind the backdrop in which the said clauses that are required to be interpreted, have been introduced. Such a construction would ensure avoidance of any inconsistency or repugnancy either within a Section or vis-à-vis two different Sections or in respect of the provisions of the very same statute [Refer: Sultana Begum v. Prem Chand Jain 1997 (1) SCC 373]. In this context, in the case of CIT v. Hindustan Bulk Carriers (supra), the Supreme Court observed thus:  ....
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.... scored at least 50% of the total credits in the existing academic year. In the absence of any one of the aforesaid two prerequisites, a student cannot qualify for being promoted to the next academic year. The consequences of not being promoted are that such a student would be declared to have automatically taken an academic break and he shall then have to repeat the examinations of the semester concerned of the academic year in which he had either failed or been detained, for being promoted to the next academic year. 27. The importance attached to attendance in classes in a professional course like BA LLB/BBA LLB cannot be overstated. There are a line of decisions of the Supreme Court and the High Courts, where it has been opined that fixation of qualifying standards including minimum percentage of attendance is a matter which is best left to expert academic bodies and courts should be slow to interfere in such policy matters unless the decision taken is patently and palpably arbitrary, illegal or in violation of the Constitution of India. Once an academic body has decided on a minimum percentage of lectures that a student must attend at every stage or in the aggregate, then cour....
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....es would not even be eligible for enrolment as members of the Bar. Such being the importance given to the attendance of lectures, there is no question of the requirement stipulated by the Rules being either irrational, unconstitutional or illegal in any manner. The quality of training which a candidate gets during the time he undergoes the course is directly proportional to the number of lectures that he attends. The failure of a candidate to attend the requisite number of lectures as stipulated by the relevant rules can legitimately disentitle him to claim eligibility for appearing in the examination. 14. That brings us to the contention vehemently urged by Mr. Mittal that insistence upon 66% lectures in the aggregate as a condition precedent for the exercise of the power of condonation was irrational, for it amounts to empowering the competent authority on the one hand and denuding him of that power on the other. We do not think so. What is the minimum percentage of lectures which a candidate must attend in each subject or on the aggregate is a matter on which the academic bodies like the University and the Bar Council of India are entitled to take a decision.....
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....o substitute for class room teaching. Conducting classes in the institutions, is a dynamic system which keeps evolving over time. It can be said with certainty that reading books prescribed in the syllabus/curriculum alone can never be enough for imparting and imbibing knowledge, which is always a two way street. Interactive sessions of the students with their teachers during the classes has a deep and lasting effect on their intellectual growth. The cut and thrust of open house debates and discussions, questions and answers posed by the students to the teachers conducting classes and tutorials is a precursor to the experience needed by a law student when he ultimately prepares a brief and appears in Court to advance arguments. The intellect of a student evolves in this process and helps in honing his skills and attaining a higher standard of excellence, which is the underlying object of acquiring a professional degree like law. It is this discourse with their teachers and peers that is engrained forever in the heart of every student as the most cherished and enduring memory of student life. Understanding the doctrines and principles of law and going through the case law prescribed....