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Relax attendance for pregnant students: HC
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 13
The Delhi High Court has asked the Bar Council of India to relax mandatory attendance rules for pregnant law students.

“If any woman candidate is deprived or detained in any of the semester just on the ground that she could not attend classes being in advanced stage of pregnancy or due to delivery of the child, then such an act on the part of any of the university or college would not only be completely in negation of the conscience of the Constitution of India but also of the women’s rights and gender equality this nation has long been striving for,” Justice Kailash Gambhir ruled.

“The Bar Council of India, although not a party in the present writ petitions, is hereby suggested to make rules for women students claiming relaxation on ground of maternity relief so that they are not deprived of appearing in the LLB examinations due to pregnancy,” the court said.

Justice Gambhir also directed Delhi University to declare the results of two students, which had been withheld for want of 66 per cent of attendance. The court said: “Law should be an instrument of social change and not a defender of it. Motherhood is not a medical condition but a promise. We all kowtow to our mothers to whom we owe our existence and to punish a woman for becoming a mother would surely be the mother of all ironies”. Denial of relaxation amounted to making “motherhood a crime which no civilised democracy in the history of mankind has ever done or will ever do. We cannot make them pay the price for the glory that is motherhood,” the judge said.