BMS student takes Mithibai college to court over withheld exam results

The Bombay High Court recently quashed the petition filed by a Mumbai student whose exam results were withheld by the college after failing to meet the minimum attendance criteria.

The Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) student had first moved Bombay High Court in March after her college, Mithibai college in Vile Parle, had barred her from giving the exams. The student, Kumari Kamakshi Roy, did not have 75 percent attendance in lectures, which is mandated by Mumbai University.

At the time, she was allowed to appear for the exam based on an interim HC order. However, after the results were declared, the college denied giving her result. Following which, she approached the court again.

While refusing to interfere in the college’s decision, a division bench of Justice S.C. Dharamadhikari and Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi said, “In the circumstances, we do not find any merit in the petition. It is dismissed. We attach no significance nor confer any right on the student for appearance in the examination of March 2016. If the petitioner needs to repeat the semester, she will have to do it.”

In her petition, Roy had contended that she couldn’t attend college due to her personal commitments. She alleged that her grandmother was unwell and parents were travelling to and from Mumbai, requiring her to tend to her ailing grandmother.

The court heard her petition and allowed her to attend the examination on the condition that the ad-interim order is subject to further direction and final orders.

After her exams, the college denied releasing her result on the grounds of her poor attendance. The college also submitted an affidavit informing the court the the student only had 35 per cent attendance in the second semester.

The court accepted the college’s argument and noted, “If the student is allowed to sit for the exam, then that was because the college was lenient and not because it is a rule.”

With inputs from Asian Age