Modi's degree: Arvind Kejriwal seeks review of Gujarat HC order

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has moved the Gujarat High Court seeking a review of the judgement which set aside the direction of the Chief Information Commission (CIC) to provide the degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on him for seeking the degree "persistently".

A single bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav admitted the petition and issued notices returnable on June 30. Kejriwal had sought a stay of the execution of judgement passed on March 31 on the grounds that there were "errors apparent on the face of record".

Kejriwal raised two issues while seeking a review of the judgement. He said that he never "persisted" for the Prime Minister's degree as he didn't file any application for information about the degree. The petition states that he neither requested to treat him as an applicant while the CIC suo motu took up the matter and therefore the cost imposed on him is nothing but "an error apparent on the record."

Read | PM Modi degree defamation case: Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh told to appear before court on July 13

The second contention that the Delhi Chief Minister made is related to the claim of the Gujarat University which said that the graduation degree of PM Modi is displayed on its website. In the judgement, Justice Vaishnav had referred to the varsity's claim to say that Kejriwal "ought not to have persisted with the request for the degree considering the fact that the degree was already put on the website of the university."

Kejriwal also contended that despite attempts to find it, the degree wasn't found on the website. However, a document referred to as OR (Office Register) was found. "It is obvious that the format of a 'degree' is quite different from that of an 'OR', which is displayed on the website," the petition said.

The petition further noted that the statement of the varsity claiming that the degree was on the website which subsequently led the court to observe that the degree was available on the website, is not correct and is an error apparent on the face of the record. The petition added that since the degree is not on the website "the judgement suffers from the error apparent on the face of the record and permitting them would lead to failure of justice."

On March 31, justice Vaishnav had quashed the CIC direction and held that "in absence of any larger public interest", the educational degrees of PM Modi were exempted from disclosure under RTI act. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Kejriwal for seeking such information through RTI persistently. The court has also mentioned that based on the oral submission of GU that the degree was publicly accessible on its website.

In 2016, the state-run Gujarat University (GU) had moved the high court against the direction issued by the CIC, New Delhi directing it to provide information to Delhi CM Kejriwal on the post graduation degree of PM Modi. The then CIC commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu had also issued the direction to the Prime Minister's Office to provide information of Modi's graduation and post graduation degrees to GU as well as Delhi University (DU) to help them in searching those documents.

Kejriwal never filed a formal RTI application but the direction came after he provided information on his electoral photo identity to an RTI applicant but criticised CIC publicly saying that it was "obstructing information on Modi's degrees." The CIC treated the Delhi CM's response as an application and issued a notice to the PMO, GU, and DU.

The Delhi CM is also facing a criminal defamation case for alleged derogatory remarks on GU related to the PM's degree. Kejriwal and his party's MP Sanjay Singh, who is a co-accused, are expected to appear before a court in Ahmedabad on July 13.