PM Modi degree row: Delhi High Court sets aside CIC order seeking disclosure

PM Modi

The Delhi High Court set aside the Central Information Commission's (CIC) order to disclose information related to Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi's degree on Monday.

A single bench of Justice Sachin Datta allowed the appeals filed by Delhi University (DU) challenging a 2017 order of CIC directing the university to furnish information related to PM Modi's degree to a Right to Information (RTI) applicant, Bar and Bench reported.

The issue came to the fore after former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in 2016 had asked PM Modi to “come clean about his educational degrees” and “make them public”.

Justice Sachin Datta, who reserved the judgement on February 27, passed the verdict on Delhi University's plea challenging the CIC order.

Following an RTI application by one Neeraj, the CIC on December 21, 2016, allowed inspection of records of all students who cleared the BA exam in 1978 -- the year Prime Minister Modi also passed it.

The RTI applicant had sought records of students who had cleared the Bachelor of Arts (BA) course from Delhi University (DU) in 1978.

It is said that the Prime Minister graduated from DU in political science in this year. In his election affidavit, PM Modi had sworn in that he graduated from DU in the Bachelor of Arts (BA) Political Science course in the year 1978.

In the preceding year, one Neeraj Sharma had filed an RTI seeking details of all BA degrees awarded by Delhi University in 1978.

The University refused to disclose the information related to the PM's degree, saying 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.