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Will DU release info on PM Modi's Bachelor's degree? Delhi HC reserves order on plea
DU had requested the court to set aside the CIC order but also added that it had no reservation in showing the records to the court.
The Delhi high court on Thursday reserved its verdict on Delhi University's (DU) plea challenging the Central Information Commission (CIC) order that had directed the university to give information about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bachelor's degree.
DU had requested the court to set aside the CIC order but also added that it had no reservation in showing the records requested in the RTI application to the court.
"University has no objection in showing the record to the court. There is a degree from 1978, bachelor of art," DU counsel Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court, according to a PTI report.
"Arguments heard. Judgement reserved," said Justice Sachin Datta after hearing the parties.
During a previous hearing, DU argued that it held the information in a fiduciary capacity and "mere curiosity" in the absence of public interest did not entitle anyone to seek private information under RTI law.
The RTI Act, it said, was reduced to a "joke" with queries seeking records of all students who passed the BA examination in 1978, including the Prime Minister.
What was the CIC order regarding information on PM Narendra Modi's degree?
An RTI application was filed by a man named Neeraj seeking details of students who took the DU bachelor's exam in 1978, the year PM Narendra Modi got his degree from the university.
The CIC on December 21, 2016, allowed inspection of records of all students who cleared the BA exam in the requested year.
The CIC, in its order, told DU to allow inspection and rejected the argument of its public information officer that it was third-party personal information, observing there was “neither merit nor legality” in it.
The university was directed “to facilitate inspection" of the register which stored the complete information on results of all students who cleared the BA exam in 1978 along with their roll number, names of the students, fathers' names, and marks obtained, and provide a certified copy of the extract, free of cost.
The CIC order was however stayed by the high court on January 23, 2017.
