On July 7, the Gujarat High Court will hear the appeal from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asking for a review of its decision in a case involving the degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After the High Court overturned a Central Information Commission (CIC) ruling directing the university to “search for information” regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree, the head of Aam Admi filed the review appeal. Justice Biren Vaishnav gave notice to Gujarat University, the Union government, the Chief Information Commissioner, and former CIC M. Sridhar Acharyulu who had made the decision after allowing the review petition. In his review petition, Kejriwal said the postgraduate degree of Modi was not available on the website of the university or elsewhere in the public domain as claimed by the university and as submitted by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who appeared on behalf of the university.
“While the court had recorded that PM Modi’s degree is available on the varsity’s website following submissions to that effect by Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, representing the university, upon a scan of the said website…(it) is found that the said degree is not available, but a document referred to as OR (Office Register) is displayed,” the review petition moved by Kejriwal said.
Pointing that Mehta had only orally submitted on the day of the hearing, that too for the first time, that the degree is available on the website, Kejriwal has pleaded that there was thus no opportunity for him to verify the oral submission and that OR cannot be considered as degree as was claimed by the varsity. Submitting that the petitioner had not filed any application for any information and only wrote a letter in April 2016 in response to a letter by CIC, Kejriwal has added that he “never requested the CIC to treat him as an applicant for the purposes of the said information,” and that CIC had instead taken up the proceedings suo motu.
Kejriwal has sought a review of the judgment and a stay on the implementation, operation and execution of the verdict until final disposal.
Earlier on March 31, Gujarat High Court had set aside the Chief Information Commission (CIC) order and ruled that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) need not furnish the degree and postgraduate degree certificates of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, was also charged Rs 25,000 in costs by the High Court for his request for information regarding the Prime Minister’s degree certificate.