Gujarat High Court will hear Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s petition seeking a review of its order in a matter related to the degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, Friday, July 7.
The AAP chief filed the review petition after the High Court set aside an order from the Central Information Commission (CIC) that had directed the varsity to “search for information” regarding PM Modi’s degree, according to ANI reports.
After admitting the review petition, Justice Biren Vaishnav issued notice to Gujarat University, the Union government, the Chief Information Commissioner, and former CIC M. Sridhar Acharyulu, who had passed the order.
Kejriwal, in his review petition, said the postgraduate degree of PM 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 read.
On 31 March, a Gujarat court imposed a ₹25,000 fine against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, asserting that information on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic degrees was not needed. The single judge bench also set aside an earlier order by the Chief Information Commission calling for the data to be furnished by the relevant universities.
The CIC had earlier directed the public information officer of the PM’s office and the PIOs of Gujarat University and Delhi University to furnish details of Modi’s graduate and postgraduate degrees.
In April 2016, then CIC M Sridhar Acharyulu had directed the Delhi University and the Gujarat University to provide information to Kejriwal on the degrees that Modi received. Three months later, the Gujarat High Court stayed the CIC order after the varsity approached it against that order.
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Updated: 07 Jul 2023, 12:26 PM IST