Arvind Kejriwal politicised PM Modi Degree issue and misused RTI Act; costs justified: Gujarat High Court

The costs of ₹25,000 imposed on Arvind Kejriwal in the case relating to the academic degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is justified since the Delhi Chief Minister tried to 'politicise' the entire issue and misused the Right to Information Act (RTI Act), the Gujarat High Court said on Thursday [Arvind Kejriwal vs Gujarat University]..Single-judge Justice Biren Vaishnav noted the submission of the Gujarat University which argued that the Right To Information Act (RTI Act) was used as a tool to solicit information which was otherwise exempted under law. "Being a respondent in the proceeding before the CIC, the language of the letter addressed by the applicant (Kejriwal) indicates the systematic design to divert and misdirect the proceedings at the hands of one Neeraj Sharma where information was asked concerning the applicant. The applicant tried to deflect the entire proceedings to politicise the issue as is evident from the letter. This clearly was an abuse of the process of the RTI machinery. Costs, therefore, are justified," Justice Vaishnav said in the order..The observations were made while rejecting a review petition filed by Kejriwal against a March 31 judgment of the High Court which had held that Gujarat University need not furnish information about the academic degree of Modi. Kejriwal filed the review plea after the High Court set aside an order by the Chief Information Commission (CIC) which had directed that details of Prime Minister Modi's degree be furnished.The CIC order was passed on an application by Kejriwal under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).After the CIC ordered the Gujarat University to disclose these details, the varsity filed an appeal before the Gujarat High Court to challenge the CIC decision.The High Court allowed the appeal and also imposed costs of ₹25,000 on Kejriwal for making a mockery of the RTI Act.Kejriwal subsequently filed an application seeking a review of this judgment..The Court noted that one of the grounds in the review plea was that the University had merely placed an office register showing the conferment of the degree and not the degree itself. In this context, the judge said, "The pleadings to the application indicate that the Office Register annexed to the application reflects the degree of the Prime Minister. The register is a document which is a contemporaneous record which reflects the conferment of the degree in question."The bench further agreed with Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta and opined that though there is a contemporaneous record in the form of the Office Register indisputably showing the qualification of the Prime Minister, Kejriwal just wanted to keep the issue alive."The review applicant having lost in his legal remedy as the (main) petition was allowed, he continues to harp upon his pursuit in following a cause by proceeding in this review application in a manner which does not reflect good taste in public life," the Court held.With these observations, the Court dismissed the review plea..Senior Advocate Percy Kavina and advocate Aum Kotwal appeared for Kejriwal.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta along with advocates Kanu Agarwal, Jash Thakkar and Dharmishta Raval represented the Gujarat University.Additional Solicitor General Devang Vyas and advocate Kshitij M Amin represented the Union Govt..[Read Judgment]