New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Delhi University and the University Grants Commission (UGC) on a plea for introducing biometric attendance system for teachers to ensure punctuality.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw sought response from the university and the UGC by Sep 19, the next date of hearing.

The public interest litigation (PIL), filed by an organisation called Indian Council of Legal Aid and Advice, said that the biometric system to register the attendance of lecturers and other teaching staff should be introduced.

It said that the system should be introduced to ensure that a teacher "adheres to the teaching hours and days prescribed by the UGC and the university rules".

Advocate R.K. Saini, appearing for the petitioner, said that the UGC in its regulations in 2010 provided that "universities and colleges must adopt at least 180 working days, that means there should be minimum of 30 weeks" of actual teaching.

He submitted that as per the UGC norms, the workload of teachers should not be less than 40 hours a week for 180 teaching days, apart from being available for at least five hours daily in the college.

"The working hours actually being put in by a lecturer/assistant professor/teacher in Delhi University daily are just about three and half hours," the petition said.

The plea said it seemed that the university was not implementing the biometric system under pressure from teacher unions.

In December 2009, the university unsuccessfully tried to introduce the biometric system in colleges. IANS