Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday rapped the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) here for allowing its students with barely 30 percent attendance to appear in their final examination.

The division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna directed the college to place before it the register with details on attendance of the students.

The bench also told college officials to file an affidavit explaining how they calculated the students’ attendance percentage.

The court last month took up the matter on its own initiative while referring to a media report on the MAMC allegedly relaxing the norms requiring a minimum attendance of 70 percent by a student to appear in the final examination.

The court sought attendance details of students only after counsel for the MAMC claimed before the bench that only students with 75 percent attendance were allowed to appear in the final examination.

The court also asked the Delhi University, under which the MAMC comes, to file an affidavit clarifying its role over the issue. It also directed the Medical Council of India (MCI) to frame guidelines for all medical colleges.

“The dean of the MAMC will explain in an affidavit to be filed by the next date whether factually the news item is correct and in exercise of which power and under what rule relaxation, if any, was granted to enable students below minimum attendance to take their final examinations,” said the bench earlier.

The media report said that to appear in a written test 70 percent minimum classroom attendance was required. It said the biometric attendance system showed that more than half the class did not have the requisite attendance.

“In the college, the average attendance for boys was about 20 percent, while the girls attended at least 40 percent lectures. The average student attendance was barely 30 percent,” said the media report.