Supreme Court reserves judgment on appeals against the Delhi High Court verdict on law students' attendance

6 October 2026

A Supreme Court bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Augustine George Masih reserved judgment on October 6, 2026.
The matter is SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies versus Bar Council of India, and the pleas were filed by the Bar Council of India and the institute.
The Delhi High Court had ruled in November 2025, in a suo motu proceeding, that students in recognised law institutions cannot be barred from examinations or further study only for falling short of minimum attendance.
That judgment also held that institutions cannot fix attendance norms above the minimum percentage set by the Bar Council of India, and asked the Council to re-examine its norms after consulting stakeholders.
The Supreme Court had earlier stayed paragraph 249 of the High Court judgment, which barred institutions from detaining students for attendance shortfalls.
It had also granted one-time relief to students whose academic sessions were running on November 3, 2025, allowing them to appear for final and supplementary examinations despite attendance shortages.