Modi certificate row: Delhi University plea against CIC order to be heard today

The CIC order was passed on activist Neeraj's application under the Right to Information Act, seeking details related to students, who appeared in the Bachelor of Arts in 1978 at DU.

New Delhi:The Delhi High Court will hear a petition today by Delhi University challenging the Central Information Commission's order which directed the varsity to allow inspection of records of all students, who had passed the BA exam in 1978, the year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also cleared it.

On November 15, justice Yashwant Varma passed an order and noted that no one appeared for DU and adjourned the hearing in the matter. The high court stayed the commission's order dated December 21, 2016 on January 23, 2017. “Consequently, let these matters be called again on 03.05.2023,” the court said then. Besides DU's challenge to the Central Information Commission (CIC) order, the court was also hearing other petitions which raised similar legal issues pertaining to the disclosure of details of results of certain examinations. The CIC order was passed on activist Neeraj's application under the Right to Information Act, seeking details related to students, who appeared in the Bachelor of Arts in 1978 at DU.

In its challenge to the CIC order, DU has contended that the order of the RTI authority is “arbitrary” and “untenable in law” as the information sought to be disclosed is “third-party personal information”. The DU said in its plea that “it was completely illegal for the CIC to direct the petitioner (DU) to disclose information which is available to it in its fiduciary capacity, that too without rendering any finding pertaining to any pressing necessity or overwhelming public interest warranting disclosure of such information on account of overwhelming or larger public interest sought to be achieved through such disclosure.” DU has earlier termed the CIC order as “far-reaching adverse consequences for the petitioner and all universities in the country which hold degrees of crores of students in a fiduciary capacity”.