PM Modi's degree row: Delhi HC defers verdict on DU's plea against CIC order to disclose info

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday deferred pronouncement of its verdict on Delhi University's plea challenging a CIC order directing disclosure of information on the bachelor's degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Justice Sachin Datta, who was scheduled to pass the judgment at around 2.30 pm, did not preside today. The verdict is likely to be pronounced on August 25. At the time of arguments, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for DU, argued the CIC order deserved to be set aside for the "right to privacy" superseded the "right to know".

Mehta, however, had said the university was willing to show to the court its record pertaining to Modi's degree but cannot disclose the same for "scrutiny by strangers" under the RTI law. The court has reserved its judgement on other similar petitions which would also be pronounced.

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Following an RTI application by one Neeraj, the Central Information Commission (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 high court stayed the CIC order on January 23, 2017.

DU challenged the CIC order on the ground that it held the information of students in a fiduciary capacity and "mere curiosity" in the absence of public interest did not entitle anyone to seek private information under the RTI law. Earlier, the counsel for the RTI applicants had defended the CIC's order on the ground that the Right to Information (RTI) Act provided for disclosure of the prime minister's educational information in greater public good.