The Delhi High Court has upheld refusal to grant direct admission to Semester-IV to a law student of Delhi University who had neither attended classes nor appeared in Semester-III examinations.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that students with 0% attendance cannot claim parity with those suffering from mere shortage of attendance.

The Bench dismissed an appeal filed by LL.B. student Aman Bansal against a single judge order which had directed declaration of his Semester-II result but denied his plea seeking progression to Semester-IV.

“Students, who have neither attended even a single class in a particular semester nor appeared in the examinations for that semester, cannot claim the benefit of progression to the next semester even where the denial of admission was for reasons not attributable to them,” the Court said.

The Court further held that there could be no parity between cases involving shortage of attendance and those involving complete absence from classes.

The appellant, a student of Law Centre-I, Faculty of Law, had cleared all papers in Semester-I.

Though he was detained in Semester-II on account of attendance shortage recorded at 27.58%, he was provisionally allowed to appear in Semester-II examinations subject to the outcome of proceedings before a committee constituted by the university.

However, his Semester-II result was withheld and he was denied admission to Semester-III, due to which he neither attended Semester-III classes nor appeared in the examinations.

Rejecting the plea, the bench held that the judgment in Court on its Own Motion Re: Suicide Committed by Sushant Rohilla applied to cases of shortage of attendance and not “nil attendance.”

It further noted that the appellant did not approach the Court while Semester-III was in progress and instead sought relief only after Semester-IV had already commenced.

“In any event, as the Appellant did not attend even a single class in Semester-III, he cannot be permitted to appear in supplementary examinations for Semester-III and, on that basis, seek admission to Semester-IV by relying upon the decision in Sushant Rohilla (supra),” the Court held.

Title: AMAN BANSAL v. UNIVERSITY OF DELHI & ORS

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 499

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