NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed the Central Information Commission order asking Delhi University (DU) to allow inspection of records of all students who passed 1978 BA exams — the year in which PM Narendra Modi had also cleared the examinations.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, while extending the relief sought by DU, which had challenged the CIC’s December 21, 2016, decision, also issued notice to RTI activist Neeraj Sharma seeking his response.
The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on April 27, by when the activist has to reply to the petition filed by DU. The petition claimed the CIC order is “arbitrary” and “untenable in law” as the information sought to be disclosed is “third party personal information”.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Central government standing counsel Arun Bhardwaj submitted before the court that the CIC order has “far-reaching adverse consequences for the petitioner and all universities in the country which hold degrees of crores of students in a fiduciary capacity”.
The DU plea had indicated it was completely illegal for the CIC to direct the university to disclose information which is available to it in its fiduciary capacity, and that too without rendering any finding pertaining to any pressing necessity or overwhelming public interest.
The tug of war had started when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal questioned the authenticity of Modi’s degrees. Sharma had filed a RTI petition seeking the records of all students from the 1978 Bachelor of Arts (BA) batch of Delhi DU — the year in which Modi had also cleared his examinations.