NEW DELHI: Delhi University (DU) informed the Delhi High Court on Thursday that while it had no objection to showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree to the court, it would not disclose the information under RTI.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing DU, argued before Justice Sachin Datta that the university’s records could not be placed under public scrutiny by “strangers.” He contended that the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) 2016 order directing disclosure of the degree should be set aside, as the “right to privacy” outweighed the “right to know.”
The RTI plea had sought records of all students who cleared the 1978 BA exam, the year Modi graduated. The high court stayed the CIC order in 2017 and has now reserved judgment. Mehta cautioned that allowing disclosure would subject DU to a flood of RTI applications. He insisted that the RTI Act was meant for transparency in public matters, not personal scrutiny driven by curiosity or political motives.
The petitioners, however, argued that awarding a degree is a public act and falls under the right to information. DU maintained that such details are held in a fiduciary capacity and cannot be disclosed without a valid public interest.