Maitreyi College Double Attendance Controversy Explained

On the night of 9 October 2026, students of Maitreyi College at Delhi University started receiving unusual messages in their official class WhatsApp groups: attend college the next day and receive double attendance. Tests were scheduled. Attendance was mandatory. Teachers were told not to let students leave before 5:30 in the evening. The timing was no coincidence — the next day, 10 October, a major protest was planned at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, and many universities and schools across the capital had already switched to online classes for the day. Students saw the double attendance offer for what many of them believed it was: an attempt to keep them away from the protest. The story, reported in detail by The Quint on 16 October 2026, has turned into one of the most talked-about college attendance controversies of the year — and it raises uncomfortable questions about how attendance, a simple academic record, can become a tool of control.

This article explains exactly what happened, why “double attendance” is such a serious allegation, what the wider pattern at the college looks like, and — most practically — what students anywhere can learn from it about protecting their own attendance records.

What Actually Happened on 10 October 2026

On 10 October, the Cockroach Janta Party had called a protest against the SIR at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. The capital braced for disruption: entry and exit at 57 metro stations across Delhi were closed, and police and CAPF personnel were deployed in large numbers, making commuting difficult. In response, many universities and schools moved to online classes for the day.

Maitreyi College took a different route. Instead of going online, the college made physical attendance mandatory and promised double attendance for the day, with tests scheduled to ensure students showed up. The messages began circulating on the night of 9 October, just hours before the protest, in official class group chats.

The key facts, as reported by The Quint, include confirmation from inside the college. Pawan Harsana, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Maitreyi College, told The Quint that the messages were indeed sent and double attendance was indeed marked. He added that teachers were instructed not to let students leave until 5:30 — something he said should not have been the case. Harsana acknowledged that safety was a concern from the administration’s perspective, but added that every student has a right to protest and that a university should be a space where people can express themselves without hesitation.

An audio note accessed by The Quint captured Associate Professor Dr Smriti Singh telling her class on the evening of 9 October that students would be getting double attendance for all classes, as assured by the principal, and that she would also arrange 20 hours of NSS (National Service Scheme) hours — urging students to come to college the next day by any means. Dr Singh later told The Quint that she needed volunteers for ‘Aagaz’, a sports day event for persons with disability that had been scheduled months in advance and happened to fall on the same day. She denied that there were orders from the principal and declined to comment on double attendance being marked in other classes. A detailed account of the reporting can be read in The Quint’s investigation, which includes screenshots of the group messages and the audio note.

The college’s principal, Haritma Chopra, told The Quint that all actions were taken to ensure the safety of students. The administration refused to respond further on the question of double attendance or the other allegations, stating that it wished to remain apolitical.

Why “Double Attendance” Is a Serious Allegation

To understand why this story matters beyond one college, it helps to understand what attendance actually is in the Indian university system — and why counting it twice is not a small favour but a structural impossibility.

Attendance is a verification of a specific hour of learning. Under the UGC’s Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and the newer National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF), a credit is defined strictly by workload and time, and this credit-based logic is emphasised in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. A single hour of class cannot be accounted for twice in an audit trail. As Harsana explained to The Quint, double attendance is not formally possible — and it creates practical absurdities, for instance for guest professors who are paid per class, since a double attendance entry would show a double class in the logs.

This is fundamentally different from an attendance waiver or concession. Delhi University’s own statutory framework provides for “Attendance Condonation” and “Duty Leave” — for example, when students miss classes because of NSS, NCC, or extra-curricular activities. Those are formal, documented mechanisms with clear rules. Double attendance, by contrast, has no basis in any framework. As one second-year student, Drishti Kumud, told The Quint, in her two years at the college there had never been a college-wide notice of double attendance — and the timing, she said, was telling.

The deeper issue is what attendance means to a student. In Delhi University, students must meet a minimum attendance threshold — generally two-thirds of lectures delivered — to be eligible to sit for examinations. With mid-semester examinations approaching at the time of the incident, students felt that the promise of double attendance acted as leverage: attend college and boost your record, or go to the protest and risk falling short. In a system where every percentage point of attendance can decide exam eligibility, attendance stops being a neutral record and becomes a bargaining chip.

The Wider Pattern Students Described

The Quint’s reporting places the 10 October incident inside what several students described as a persistent pattern of discouraging protest at the college.

On 30 September, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta was set to be the chief guest at the college’s anniversary and freshers’ festival. Following the Kalkaji rape case and the Satya Niketan building collapse, many students had prepared to raise their concerns and demands before the Chief Minister. According to Drishti, the principal addressed students on 28 September and repeatedly told them not to protest, saying it would ruin the college’s reputation, and added that if they wanted to protest, they could do so only after the Chief Minister’s visit. A notice circulated by the administration the day before the event blocked second- and third-year students from entering their own college; multiple students reported being allowed inside only after the Chief Minister had left.

Students also described what happened around the Satya Niketan collapse: they were repeatedly told to stay apolitical and not join protests with any political organisation, and data collected through a Google Form after the collapse was, they alleged, used to question and put pressure on students. Some were reportedly asked why they had not come to college.

Students pointed to what they saw as a contradiction: while the college insisted on remaining apolitical, it hosted a ‘Yuva Kumbh’ marking 100 years of the RSS. Bhavya Maan, a second-year student, drew a sharp distinction between safety and restriction: “There is a difference between ensuring students’ safety and restricting their ability to exercise their right to protest. Using safety as a justification for forcing us to attend college takes away our freedom to choose whether we want to participate or not.” She urged the college to adopt better approaches, such as educating students about the ongoing protests and allowing them to make their own informed decisions.

Maitreyi College is located in Chanakyapuri, the area worst affected by the blockades that day, so commuting safety concerns were genuine. The dispute is about whether mandatory attendance with double counting was a safety measure or a way to keep students from the protest.

Student Rights and the University as a Space

The controversy touches a larger question: what is a university for? Harsana’s comment to The Quint captures it well — a university should be a space for people to express themselves without hesitation, and curtailing that strikes at the very basis of educational institutions. The right to peaceful protest is a constitutional right in India, and students do not surrender it at the college gate.

At the same time, colleges have a genuine duty of care toward their students. When a city shuts down metro stations and deploys large numbers of security personnel, an administration has legitimate reasons to worry about students travelling across the city. The criticism from students was not that the college cared about safety, but that the chosen method — mandatory physical attendance sweetened with double attendance and extra NSS hours — made staying away from the protest the costly choice and attending college the rewarding one, precisely when exams were approaching and attendance percentages mattered most.

This is why the story resonates far beyond Delhi University. Attendance systems are built on trust: students trust that the record reflects reality, and institutions trust that students will show up. When an administration is accused of adjusting that record for non-academic reasons, it damages the credibility of the entire system.

What This Means for Students Practically

Whatever one’s view of the politics, the episode carries practical lessons for every college student in India.

First, attendance is leverage because it is tied to exam eligibility. In most Indian universities, falling below the minimum attendance line can mean being barred from examinations or having to repeat coursework. That is precisely why an offer of double attendance is so powerful — and why students should understand exactly where they stand. A student who knows their real attendance percentage cannot be swayed by vague promises or threats; the number is either above the line or it is not.

Second, students should keep their own records. Official registers can contain errors, and in disputed situations, a student’s own log of attended and missed classes is invaluable. Knowing whether attendance really matters in college helps students understand the stakes, and keeping a personal tracker removes the guesswork.

Third, learn the formal mechanisms. DU provides condonation and duty leave for legitimate reasons — NSS, NCC, sports, medical emergencies. These exist in written rules with defined procedures. Informal promises made in WhatsApp groups do not carry the same weight. When in doubt, students should ask for the rule in writing: which provision of the university’s regulations covers this? If nobody can point to one, that itself is an answer.

How to Calculate and Protect Your Attendance Percentage

The best defence against attendance-related pressure is arithmetic. The formula is simple:

Attendance percentage = (Classes attended ÷ Total classes held) × 100

To find how many classes must be attended to stay above a threshold, reverse it:

Required classes = Total classes held × Threshold (as a decimal)

For example, in a semester with 90 lectures and a two-thirds requirement (about 66.67 percent), a student needs 60 lectures. In a system with a 75 percent rule, the same semester requires 68 lectures (90 × 0.75 = 67.5, rounded up).

The guide on how many classes can be missed walks through buffer calculations for different term lengths, and a few habits make the number work for students rather than against them:

• Check weekly, not at semester end. A mid-semester check leaves time to recover; an end-semester discovery usually does not.
• Count every absence. Unless the institution’s written rules say otherwise, treat excused and unexcused absences the same in the calculation. Hope is not a strategy.
• Keep a safety margin. Aim a few points above the minimum line. One disputed entry or one counting error should not be able to sink exam eligibility.
• Document everything. Leave applications, medical certificates, duty leave approvals — keep copies. If a record is ever questioned, paperwork wins.
• Know the condonation process. If attendance falls short for genuine reasons, most universities have a formal condonation process with defined limits and documentation requirements. Learn it before it is needed.

What to Watch Next

The Maitreyi College story is unlikely to end with one news report. Students who spoke to The Quint did so despite fear of suspension or expulsion, and several said they hoped things would change — particularly because Maitreyi is a women’s college and students felt they deserved the same space for expression as students of other well-known DU colleges. Whether the university administration examines the double attendance marking, whether any formal inquiry follows, and how the college handles student expression going forward are all open questions.

For students elsewhere, the episode is a reminder that attendance records belong to a formal academic system, not to the discretion of the moment. Students who track their own numbers, understand their institution’s written rules, and keep their documentation in order are far harder to pressure, whatever the circumstances.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Maitreyi College double attendance controversy?

In October 2026, Delhi University’s Maitreyi College was reported to have promised students double attendance for attending college on 10 October, the day of a major protest at Jantar Mantar, with mandatory classes and tests scheduled. Students and at least one faculty member said the move was meant to keep students away from the protest, while the administration said its actions were taken to ensure student safety.

Is double attendance actually possible in the university system?

According to faculty cited in the reporting, no. Under the UGC’s credit-based framework, attendance verifies a specific hour of learning, and a single hour cannot be counted twice in an audit trail. It is different from formal mechanisms like attendance condonation or duty leave, which are defined in university regulations.

What is the minimum attendance required in Delhi University?

Delhi University generally requires students to attend at least two-thirds of the lectures delivered in each subject to be eligible for examinations, with formal provisions for condonation and duty leave in defined circumstances. Students should always verify the current requirement in their college handbook, as rules can be updated.

Can a college stop students from attending a protest?

Colleges have a duty to keep students safe, but peaceful protest is a constitutional right. The controversy centres on whether mandatory attendance with double counting was a genuine safety measure or a way to restrict students’ freedom to choose. Students who spoke out argued that the college should educate students and let them make informed decisions instead.

How can students protect themselves in attendance disputes?

Students should calculate their own attendance percentage regularly using the standard formula, keep a personal log of attended and missed classes, preserve copies of all leave applications and approvals, learn their institution’s written condonation rules in advance, and maintain a safety margin above the minimum threshold.

Students who want to stay on top of their own numbers can use the free attendance calculator at https://attendancepercentagecalc.com/ to find their percentage, required classes, and safe absence buffer in seconds.