Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Wednesday,
March 15, 2017.
The
controversy over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree refuses to die down.
Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL), from where he is said to have
passed out in 1978, says it doesn’t have records for that year as these are
maintained only for one year.
In response
to an RTI query by this IANS correspondent seeking a list of students who had
qualified for a BA degree in 1978, the SOL said: “The data is not maintained in
the branch in the order as desired by the applicant.”
Replying to
two other queries on the results of students who qualified for the same degree
in 1978, including their roll numbers, names and father’s names, the SOL said:
“No such list is maintained in the branch. As per weeding rules of the
university, spare copies of the published result is kept only for one year.”
A
consolidated reply from the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO),
Meenakshi Sahay, on the same query said: “The information sought by the applicant
was endorsed to the Dean (Exam), OSD (Exam), Joint Registrar (Degree) and
Section Officer (Information) of the University, who are the deemed PIOs under
section 5(4) and 5(5) of the Right to Information Act, 2005.”
“Further,
relevant input, received from the Dean (Exam), OSD (Exam), Joint Registrar
(Exam), indicates that the University, otherwise, treats the data of the
students pertaining to the examination taken by them while pursuing a course in
the University as personal to the students concerned which can be disclosed
only to the student concerned,” she added.
“The
disclosure of such information has no relationship to any public activity or
interest. Disclosure of such information is exempt under section 8(1)(j) of the
Act,” she further said.
The quoted
exemption in section 8(1)(j) says: “Information which relates to personal
information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity
or interest, or which would cause unwarraned invasion of the privacy of the
individual...”
The
university’s examination branch III (i) and IV replied in similar vein.
“It appears
that the information sought by the application is such that it is treated as
personal information of students, having a fiduciary relation with the
University.”
Earlier, the
Central Information Commission (CIC) had directed the university “to facilitate
inspection of relevant register where complete information about result of all
students who passed in Bachelor of Arts, in year 1978 along with roll number,
names of the students, father’s name and marks obtained as available with the
University and provide certified copy of the extract of relevant pages from the
register, free of cost”.
The CIC had
also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on the CPIO for rejecting an RTI application
seeking details of Modi’s graduation degree.
Information
commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu also pulled up the CPIO, saying the refusal to
provide the information sought reminded him of the saying “penny wise, pound
foolish”.
Acharyulu was
divested of his charge days after he passed his order.
The Delhi
high court had later stayed the CIC order directing Delhi University to allow
inspection of records of all students who had passed the BA degree exam in
1978.