Thrissur: Over 1,000 Bachelor of Pharmacy (B Pharm) students in Kerala have been barred from taking the examinations over poor attendance. This was announced by the Kerala University of Health Science. Earlier, they had secured permission to attend classes after they approached the High Court of Kerala.

The affected students belong to across 35 medical colleges, including four in the government sector. They are currently in the fifth and seventh semesters of the B Pharm course. The fifth- and seventh- semester examinations begin on January 23 and February 13, respectively.

The fifth-semester students had enrolled for the course in 2019. The seventh-semester students belong to the 2018 batch.

Why they were short of attendance

The students were short of the required attendance after they stayed away from the classes during an agitation.

A directive had been issued that only those who have completed the first and second semesters can study in the fifth semester, and all semesters till the fourth have to be completed to study in the seventh semester. The students, who were barred from classes following this directive, staged a stir for a month-and-a-half at the University headquarters and later before the Secretariat.

The students were given permission on November 21 to attend the classes after the Pharmacy Council submitted in the High Court that issues on attending classes come under the purview of the University. But it was specifically stated that the verdict was not applicable to appearing in the exam.