Rebel with a cause: Meet India's youngest RTI activist

New Delhi: In his white and grey uniform, big school bag, bespectacled Mobashshir Sarwar stands out in the bustling premises of the Delhi High Court. The XII standard student has a date with the judge, one of the many he has had since he took his school to court for expelling him in December. At 17 and already a 100-odd RTIs old, Mobashshir is no ordinary rebel. He has taken on the administration for everything from bad rotis served at the hostel to how school fee is being misused at annual functions by seeking information using the RTI. No wonder then that on a Monday morning when his classmates were concentrating on finishing a three-hour exam paper, Mobashshir, having turned in his answer sheet in 45 minutes, was waiting in queue at the Delhi High Court to get his pass made. On 20 December 2010, Mobashshir was sent an expulsion notice, banning him from campus and debarring him from exams for “unending complaints of misbehavior and indiscipline”. In March, after his appeals to the administration fell on deaf ears, Mobashshir filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court challenging his expulsion. The school, since, has been directed by the high court to hold supplementary exams for Mobashshir and allow him to attend classes while the case remains pending. So what led to Mobashshir’s expulsion from school? [caption id=“attachment_117960” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The administration seems to have realised early on the potential Mobashshir had to shake things up. Photo by Naresh Sharma”]  [/caption] The principal of Jamia Senior Secondary School, Tariq Habib, speaking to Firstpost, said, “I know Mobashshir for a long time. And he is still my student. Whatever I am doing, it is for his good. I have no ill-feeling against any of my students. If a student does something wrong, it is the duty of the teacher to correct him. I don’t mean that he has done something wrong; it may be that he has done something wrong. Students are still very young and they may do something wrong. As teachers we have a duty to bring them to the right path.” The principal refused to comment on the Mobashshir’s use of the RTI Act to seek information from the administration. He added that the school came under the purview of the Jamia Milia Islamia University and that further questions should be directed to the university’s media coordinator. A little background on Mobashshir, a boy who moved to Delhi from Bihar’s Madhepura district in 2005 to study at the Jamia school: Last year, Mobashshir sought information through the RTI Act about the sanctioned budget for the school’s annual function. “I asked what the sanctioned budget was and to provide me with a copy of the approval for the budget. I didn’t get the information I sought. I had also asked for details of the guest list. Is it right to invite 200 guests who have no direct connection with the school at the expense of students?” As a XI standard student, when Mobashshir was not allowed to take up Home Science as a subject, he sought information through the RTI Act asking on what grounds he had been denied. “By law, boys are allowed to opt for Home Science. Besides, the prospectus of Jamia does not state that there is a bar on boys from taking up Home Science.” The reply he received from the administration stated that it was not the practice in Jamia that boys took up Home Science. “Practice does not make law,” says Mobashshir. “I gave a detailed representation, in which I also pointed out that Home Science is one of the subjects for civil services. And even in CBSE schools, there is Home Science… I am now thinking of filing a PIL on this issue,” says the civil service aspirant. Continues on the next page In another instance, information he got through RTI exposed the difference between the amount charged to students towards the hostel mess and that charged by administration to the contractor. “I asked in my RTI applications whether Jamia was a profit-making institution. The answer was no. Then I asked why was this money — Rs 200-300 per student — being saved? If they paid the contractor the amount they charged the student, the food quality will be considerably better.” When Mobashshir was only in the VI (sixth) standard, he shot off a letter to this principal complaining that the rotis were of poor quality. The provost sent him a reply that accused him of violating hostel norms by approaching the principal directly. “The provost’s reaction surprised me. I responded in writing by saying that in my previous school directly speaking to the principal was not a violation and if it that was the case here, it should be stated so in the prospectus and in the Act of Jamia. The provost was removed from his job after a few days.” His first victory? “I don’t think of it as a victory. I was not fighting any one person,” he says. Asked what makes him take such risks, he says, “It is just that the truth should come out. I don’t think of consequences.” The administration seems to have realised early on the potential Mobashshir had to shake things up. He received his first notice in VI Standard. He rebutted allegations of poor attendance and indiscipline with hard facts. “I concluded my letter by saying that it was my apprehension that a ground was being selectively made for my expulsion from the hostel since I had brought the issue of poor quality of food to the notice of the vice-chancellor,” said Mobashshir. Despite such constant tussles between him and the administration, Mobashshir has continued to pass with first division marks. So what do his classmates have to say about all this? “They support me. They believe this should be done and that these issues need to be raised. I tell them too to file RTIs. But some of them are scared.” But Mobashshir already knows what it means to take on the high and mighty. While his case was pending in court, he was threatened by members of the administration. “I immediately filed a police complaint stating that if harm should come to me, such and such persons should be held responsible.” Mobashshir says he likes to read Delhi High Court and Supreme Court judgments. And he seems to know the Delhi High Court like the back of his hand. “Ever since my case went to court, I would have gone a hundred times. Once I get a pass, I spend the whole day going from courtroom to courtroom listening to cases.” He has even attended the 2G case hearings at the Special CBI court. “But it’s no fun. There is just too much crowd. It is a tamasha.” Mobashshir is from Bihar’s Madhepura district. His father is a businessman, his mother a housewife. He has three sisters. Ask him about his parents’ reaction to his campaign against corruption and he only says, “Without the help of parents, nothing can happen. They support me.”