SC to hear plea law student detained for attendance shortage

A Delhi University law student detained in Semester IV for lecture shortage owing to her pregnancy moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday to seek directions to allow her to write her exams and the apex court is set to hear her plea on Wednesday.

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to grant interim relief to second-year student Ankita Meena to sit in the examinations, saying it needed to go into the details of the matter first.

Mentioning it before a Supreme Court bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Naveen Sinha, Meena's counsel Ashish Virmani and Himanshu Dhuper sought urgent hearing of the case and that the student be allowed to sit in the ongoing exams.

The bench said it would hear the plea on Wednesday morning. The exam is scheduled in the Wednesday afternoon shift.

A single Judge of the High Court last week dismissed her plea for relaxation in attendance norm. On Monday, she approached a Division Bench of the High Court to challenge this order but could not get relief to sit in the examinations.

Her counsel raised fundamental questions relating to equality before law and the fundamental right of a woman to procreate.

As per the petition, Meena is a regular student studying in law course's Semester IV. She had 86 per cent attendance in Semester III. During Semester IV, she delivered a baby boy on February 2. On that account, she could not attend part of the Semester IV classes, the petitioner averred.

On May 11, the DU released a revised list of detainees, who did not have 70 per cent attendance, including Meena's name.

--IANS

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