Delhi High Court sets aside CIC order asking to disclose info on PM Modi's degree

The Delhi High Court has set aside a Central Information Commission (CIC) order that had directed Delhi University (DU) to disclose records concerning the bachelor’s degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Justice Sachin Datta pronounced the order on Monday, with the detailed judgment awaited.

The case stemmed from a 2016 CIC directive which had allowed inspection of records of students who cleared the BA programme in 1978, the year when the Prime Minister is said to have completed the course.

DU challenged the ruling the following year, and the High Court stayed the CIC order on January 24, 2017, the very first date of hearing.

During the proceedings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing DU, argued that the CIC’s order could not be sustained. He told the court that the university had no objection in producing the degree before the Bench but could not permit outsiders to inspect the record.

“There is indeed a BA degree from 1978, but that does not mean the records can be thrown open to strangers,” he submitted, adding that mere curiosity does not justify invoking the Right to Information Act.

On the other side, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for RTI applicant Neeraj Kumar, contended that the information sought was not extraordinary. He argued that universities traditionally published such results openly, on notice boards, official websites, and even newspapers.

He also rejected the contention that disclosure would breach fiduciary obligations, stressing that education-related details were public in nature.

Neeraj Kumar had approached DU through an RTI application seeking the names, roll numbers, marks and results of all students who appeared for the BA course in 1978. DU’s Central Public Information Officer refused the request, terming it “third-party information.”

Kumar then moved the CIC, which in 2016 held that degree records of universities constituted public documents and should be made available under RTI.

Before the High Court, DU maintained that while it was willing to reveal the number of candidates who passed or failed the examination, it could not part with the complete list of students with their personal details.

The university argued that such data involved personal information of all students enrolled in the 1978 batch and was protected under the fiduciary exemption in the RTI Act.