Recommendations of the Student Grievance Redressal Committee are mandatory for universities and must be implemented without requiring approval from competent authorities.

JUDGMENT :

ANIL L. PANSARE, J.

Heard.

2. Issue Rule, returnable forthwith. Mr. Yash Vyankatraman, learned counsel waives service of notice for the respondents. With consent of learned counsels for the parties, the petition is taken up for final hearing.

3. The question that falls for our consideration is whether the recommendations made by Student Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) constituted under the provisions of the University Grants Commission (Redressal of Grievances of Students) Regulations, 2023 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Regulations of 2023’) is/are binding on the Institution.

4. The Regulations of 2023 were made in exercise of powers conferred under clause (g) of sub-section (1) of Section 26 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act of 1956’).

5. Respondent no. 4 is the Law University represented by the Registrar. Respondent no. 1 is the Vice Chancellor of the Law University and respondent no. 3 is Convenor and Members of Examination Committee of the Law University. The petitioner is a law student admitted to B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) programme of the University. He was admitted in the year 2021. In November, 2023, he was debarred from the 5^th Semester examination due to inadequate attendance. On 11-1-2024, he was declared non promoted to the next academic year with a direction to re-register as ex-student. On 19-7-2024, respondent no. 4 directed petitioner to vacate the hostel as he was not promoted to next academic year. In November, 2024, he was denied permission to appear for 5^th Semester examination. The reason cited was inadequate attendance for the period from July to November, 2024, despite the fact that he was directed to vacate the hostel.

6. The petitioner approached this Court through Writ Petition No. 4878/2024 having been disallowed to appear in 7^th Semester examination on account of lack of attendance for 5^th Semester. The petition was dismissed holding that lower limit of relaxing attendance criteria is 67%, below which, the authorities do not have any discretion to relax the said criteria. The petitioner had not satisfied the said attendance criteria. Accordingly, the petition was dismissed. Thus petitioner’s plea to appear for 7^th Semester examination was rejected. The case of petitioner for appearance in 5^th Semester was not the issue.

7. The petitioner and one another then approached Students Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) constituted under Rule 5 of the Regulations of 2023. Following points were deliberated in the meeting held on 12-4-2025 and on 7-5-2025, certain recommendations were made which read as under.

“AGENDA 1 : Application of Ms. Janhavee Harne (UID-UG22-56)

The student had submitted a petition stating that she was required to vacate the hostel vide the email received from the office of The Registrar on 19-04-2024 enclosed as Annexure ‘A’. Accordingly, she vacated the hotel and could not attend the classes. Thereafter, she was debarred from appearing in the exam in two papers due to shortfall of attendance. She further submitted that earlier re-registered candidates were not required to attend the classes. She also brought to the notice of the SGRC committee that her ERP was also not updated and no clarifications were given to her on many issues such as Fee structure, ERP update, etc.

The committee after due deliberations came to the conclusion that since the student was required to vacate the hostel, she could not be detained for not attending the classes.

In view of the above, it is recommended that a special exam should be conducted for