Arvind Kejriwal challenges Gujarat High Court judgment exempting disclosure of PM Modi's degree under RTI

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has challenged the single-judge judgment of the Gujarat High Court which ruled that there is no mandate under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) to disclose Prime Minister Narendra Modi's graduation and post-graduation certificates [Arvind Kejriwal vs Gujarat University]..A division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee has posted the appeal for hearing on January 11. This comes after advocate Aum Kotwal, appearing for Kejriwal, sought an adjournment on the ground that Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi will be arguing the matter. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was present in the Court representing the Gujarat University (respondent), agreed to the same though he expressed displeasure at the last-minute request.The Court proceeded to post the case for hearing on January 11. .Single-judge Justice Biren Vaishnav had on March 31 ruled that Gujarat University need not furnish details pertaining to PM Modi's academic degree. The judge had overturned a Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) order in this regard and also imposed a fine of ₹25,000 on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader for misusing the RTI Act. .In the appeal challenging this verdict, Kejriwal has contended that Justice Vaishnav erred in imposing the costs on him as he had not filed any application seeking details but had only written a letter to the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), who in turn, suo motu ordered the varsity to disclose details of PM Modi's degree. In his appeal, Kejriwal has argued that the right to vote would become meaningless if voters were not informed about the educational qualifications and antecedents of a candidate. "It is said that all the information about candidates contesting elections must be made available in the public domain as exposure to public scrutiny was one of the surest means to glance the democratic governing system and have competent legislators. Every citizen has a fundamental right to know the educational qualification of a candidate," the appeal states. The appeal further refers to provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951, which mandates that a candidate contesting elections must disclose his true information and that if a candidate is found to have disclosed false information, he is liable to be disqualified. "Thus, every candidate has to disclose his educational qualification to subserve the right to information of the voters," the appeal reads further. .Further, Kejriwal's appeal also highlighted certain "contradiction" in the submissions of the Gujarat University before Justice Vaishnav. He stated that during the hearing of the matter, the varsity had submitted that the copy of the degree is already available on the internet and is in the public domain. However, no such document is available on its website and the only available document is a pdf file which is the office register. The same is "cryptic", Kejriwal added. The appeal further cites judgments of the Supreme Court to counter the finding of Justice Vaishnav that the information sought (details of degree) is "personal information" and is barred from being disclosed under the RTI Act. The Delhi CM has argued that a 'degree' is a 'public document', while a 'marksheet' is 'private.' Therefore, the single-judge erred in appreciating the arguments and the material on record, Kejriwal has argued.