Mumbai, June 19 -- Denying relief to a third-year Bachelor of Science student with psychiatric issues who was debarred from her final semester exam due to insufficient attendance, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed her petition, observing that any judicial direction relaxing attendance requirements in an individual case would necessarily have implications beyond that case, since attendance regulations apply uniformly to all students. The student, enrolled in a suburban college, had claimed that she had missed her classes on account of a "clinically significant psychiatric condition/personality disorder", with symptoms like psychological distress, impaired emotional regulation, stress intolerance, and an inability to sustain goal-directed cognitive activity. A division bench of justices RI Chagla and Farhan Dubash said, "We wish to clarify that we are not insensitive to the petitioner's circumstances. The material placed before us indicates that she underwent a period of considerable medical difficulty. We extend our deepest sympathies to the petitioner and her family. Sympathy, however, cannot be a substitute for legal entitlement." The student had approached the High Court urging it to set aside a debarment letter issued to her on April 15 and allow her to appear for the sixth semester re-examination slated to start on Friday. The student's petition was filed against the University Grants Commission (UGC), the deemed university and her college. She had contended that in the previous semester, she had 82.79% attendance until her health started deteriorating in March. The student told the court that on March 9, she suffered "an acute medical episode involving suicidal ideation and hallucinations". Her parents took her back to Lucknow, her home town, where she remained institutionalised from March 9-20. However, even after she was discharged, her parents were apprehensive about letting her return as she could pose a risk to herself or to other students in her condition. As a result, she could not meet the minimum requirement of 80% attendance to be able to take her final semester examination. Her lawyers told the court that she was not a habitual defaulter and her absence from college was due to a "serious psychiatric disorder". The university's counsel, however, argued that the student's circumstances were not exceptional. He said that the university had recently taken a decision that attendance of students on exceptional and medical grounds can be exempted from 80% to 60%. However, in this case, the attendance of the student was below 60% in five subjects. The university also argued that on April 13, the student had defended her thesis in person. The argument that her parents were apprehensive to let her come back to college after her discharge from the hospital on March 20 was made for the first time in court and it was not what they told the university....