New Delhi: JNU teachers will have their attendance marked from now on, the university's academic council decided on Friday at a meeting from which student members were barred.

A teacher said the subject wasn't on the agenda and dissenters weren't allowed to speak.

The move comes amid a continuing agitation by students, backed by most teachers, against the introduction of an attendance register for students in January, with a rule mandating expulsion in the absence of 75 per cent attendance.

All four student members of the about 120-strong council, as well as a dean, were barred from the meeting on the ground that they faced a probe for their protests against a proposed and now-shelved course on Islamic terrorism and against a professor accused of sexual harassment.

"Teachers' attendance wasn't on the agenda," JNU Teachers Association president Sona Jharia Minz told The Telegraph.

"During his concluding remarks, he (vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar) said a biometric system to record students' attendance was being worked out. To this, a colleague asked in jest, 'What about teachers?' The VC immediately said, 'OK, it is decided.' People raised their hands to (express) dissent but weren't allowed to speak."

Among the other decisions taken was one to turn the entrance exam into a fully online test, held in the multiple-choice format, and to allow the answer scripts of semester exams to be shown to the students.

Minz said: "This method of entrance exams is exclusionary and goes against the deprived sections, many of whom are outside the scope of online entrances. Requests to include a written component and implement this (the online component) in phases were not considered."

Students and teachers of the non-science disciplines have opposed the shift from descriptive answers to a multiple-choice format.

Students' union joint secretary Shubhanshu Singh told this newspaper: "No stakeholders except the administrative heads were included in the decision-making process. No student was present --- the whole student community was eliminated in the most dictatorial manner."

Protests by teachers and students are expected once the new academic year begins later this month.

A statement from rector Chintamani Mahapatra said: "While JNU had already implemented the rules of attendance for students and administrative staff, the 146th AC meeting through its resolution has made attendance mandatory for the teaching community as well. JNU faculty need to give attendance at least once in a day."

It added: "Moreover, the AC also approved a rule that during the registration process at the beginning of every semester, all the incoming and continuing students are required to give an undertaking that they will abide by the attendance rules."