The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Delhi University has told the Delhi high court that the purpose of a Right to Information request cannot be to satisfy a third party’s curiosity – in a case relating to prime minister Narendra Modi’s college degree.
Representing the university was Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who said that students’ information was held by a university in a “fiduciary capacity”. It could not be revealed “to a stranger”, he argued.
“Section 6 provides a mandate that information will have to be given, that is the purpose. But the RTI Act is not for the purpose of satisfying someone’s curiosity,” Mehta said to a bench of Justice Sachin Datta, according to a report by The Hindu.
The high court was hearing Delhi University’s 2017 plea against the Central Information Commission’s order asking it to allow inspection of records of the students who had graduated from its Bachelor of Arts programme in 1978. This is the year that Modi is stated to have cleared the examination.
‘Misuse’
LiveLaw reported that Mehta submitted that the RTI law cannot be “misused” by ordering disclosure of information which is “unrelated” to the transparency and accountability in functioning of public authorities.
While there is speculation and controversy over Modi’s degrees Mehta seemed to suggest that this will open itself up to more such requests.
“He wants everybody’s information in the year 1978. Somebody can come and say 1979. Someone 1964. This university was established in 1922,” he said.
A decade’s efforts
The CIC had passed its order almost a decade ago, in 2016, in response to RTI activist Neeraj Kumar’s application for details of 1978 DU graduates. The CIC had observed that every University is a public body and that all degree related information is available in the varsity’s private register, which is a public document, LiveLaw noted in its report.
In October last year, the Supreme Court refused to quash summons issued by a trial court to Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in a defamation case filed by Gujarat University over comments he made about Modi’s education. The Bharatiya Janata Party – Modi’s party – has alleged that he got his Masters degree from GU after the BA from DU.
In March 2023, the Gujarat high court had quashed another 2016 directive of the CIC asking it to provide details of Modi’s educational qualifications to Kejriwal.