The Delhi High Court on Tuesday deferred hearing on a plea related to disclosure of details of Delhi University's records of the students who had passed Bachelor of Arts course in 1978, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also cleared the exam, under the RTI Act.
Justice V. Kameswar Rao posted the case for hearing on July 25 after Delhi University sought an adjournment stating that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was not available as he had gone to Gujarat to cast his vote in the general elections.
At the outset of the brief hearing, Justice Rao asked whether the information sought under the RTI Act related to third party.
“This info pertains to whom?...Is it with regard to any specific person,” the judge asked.
Advocate Trideep Pais, representing RTI activists Anjali Bhardwaj, Nikhil Dey and Amrita Johri who have collectively filed an intervention application, argued that convocation and declaration of result is a public event but Delhi University was denying the details for a particular year only.
The High Court was hearing a petition by Delhi University challenging a Central Information Commission (CIC) order allowing RTI activist Neeraj to inspect records of the students who had passed DU’s Bachelor of Arts in 1978.
After staying the CIC’s order on January 23, 2017, the High Court has been hearing the case and put it up for final arguments on Tuesday.
The university had contended that the CIC’s order was passed in “unexplainable haste” as the information sought is “third party personal information.”
