New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday overturned the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) order to disclose information related to Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s degree of DU in 1978.
Justice Sachin Datta allowed the appeals filed by Delhi University (DU) challenging a 2017 order of CIC directing the varsity to furnish information related to Modi’s degree to a Right to Information (RTI) applicant.
“CIC order is set aside,” the single-judge said pronouncing the verdict.
The RTI applicant had sought records of students who had cleared the Bachelor of Arts (BA) course from Delhi University (DU) in 1978, the year in which PM Modi is said to have graduated from DU in political science.
The issue came to the limelight after former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in 2016 asked PM Modi to “come clean about his educational degrees” and “make them public”.
PM Modi had sworn in his election affidavit that he graduated from DU in the Bachelor of Arts (BA) Political Science course in the year 1978.
A year before that, one Neeraj Sharma had filed an RTI seeking details of all BA degrees awarded by Delhi University in 1978. The University denied disclosure of the information related to the degree, stating that it was “private” and had “nothing to do with public interest”.
In December 2016, Sharma moved the CIC against the University’s response. Information Commissioner Prof M Acharyulu passed an order directing DU to make the register containing the list of students who passed the Bachelor of Arts programme in 1978, public.
On January 23, 2017, the University moved High Court challenging the CIC order. The Court in January 2017 issued notice to Sharma and stayed the order after noting Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta’s arguments that the order has far-reaching adverse consequences and that all universities in the country which hold degree details of crores of students in a fiduciary capacity.
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