New Delhi: Delhi University informed the High Court on Thursday that it had no issues with giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bachelor of Arts degree from 1978 to the court, but that it could not divulge it to strangers, according to The Hindu.
Justice Sachin Datta of the High Court postponed his decision on Thursday on the university's 2017 petition contesting the Central Information Commission's ruling requiring it to allow record inspection.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the institution, argued that the information panel's decision might be overturned. He claimed that the Right to Information application in question was politically motivated.
The solicitor general had previously argued that mere curiosity was insufficient cause to approach the Right to Information, Scroll.in reported.
“Here is a case where a stranger walks into the RTI office of University and says out of 10 lakh students, give me degree of X,” he said, according to Live Law. “The question is whether anyone can walk in and ask for degrees of others?”
Mehta went on to say that the university only stores records about students' degrees and marksheets in a "fiduciary capacity" and that they are considered personal information.
Fiduciary capacity is an arrangement in which an organisation or individual is trusted to handle property for another entity. However, counsel Sanjay Hegde, who represented the applicant, contended that educational information is public and frequently published on noticeboards and media.
The Bharatiya Janata Party claims that Modi received a BA degree from Delhi University in 1978 and a Master of Arts degree from Gujarat University in 1983. Critics and the opposition Aam Aadmi Party have claimed that the degrees are forged.
The case
In 1978, Neeraj Kumar, a Right to Information activist, requested information regarding students enrolled in Delhi University's BA degree, including their roll numbers, grades, and whether or not they passed the course. The request was denied by the university's central public information officer because it was "third-party information".
The activist then approached the Central Information Commission. In 2016, the commission directed the institution to share the information. It found that Delhi University was a public organisation and that all information about its degrees was available in the institution's register, which is a public record.
The institution had previously contended in the High Court that all students' roll numbers, names, and marks were exempt from disclosure.