Modi degree row: HC stays CIC order asking Gujarat university to give info to Kejriwal

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Friday stayed the Central Information Commission’s order asking the Gujarat University to provide information on the degree earned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice VM Pancholi accepted the varsity’s demand for stay. It also issued notices to Central Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu, the union government and Kejriwal seeking their responses and posted further hearing to 6 September. The university had approached a single judge bench of the High Court last week seeking to quash the CIC order. However, justice SH Vora only issued notices to the three respondents but did not stay the CIC order. [caption id=“attachment_2840056” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Gujarat High Court. PTI[/caption] The University then moved the division bench. Senior counsel Tushar Mehta, representing the GU, on Friday argued before the division bench that the varsity was not a party to proceedings before the Information Commission and no hearing was given to it before passing the order, in violation of principles of natural justice. On 29 April, CIC directed Delhi University and Gujarat University to provide information on degrees earned by Modi to the AAP leader. CIC’s order came a day after Kejriwal wrote to Acharyulu saying he does not object to government records about him being made public and wondered why the Commission wanted to “hide” information on Modi’s educational qualification. AAP had questioned Modi’s BA and MA degrees, alleging discrepancies in certificates. In response, BJP president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had released copies of the Prime Minister’s degrees.