The issue regarding the degree records of the year cropped up after Aam Aadmi Party raised questions about the degree of prime minister Narendra Modi, triggering a controversy.New Delhi: The Central Information Commission has directed Delhi University to allow inspection of records related to all the students who had passed BA degree in 1978, the year in which, according to the University, prime minister Narendra Modi had also cleared the examination.
The Commission rejected the contention of the central public information officer of the university that it was a third party personal information, saying it finds "neither merit nor legality" in it.
Read: Delhi varsity official fined Rs 25K for rejecting RTI query on PM Modi's degree
It 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...."
RTI applicant Neeraj had sought to know from the university the total number of students who appeared in Bachelor of Arts in 1978, besides result of all students who appeared in the examination along with their roll number, name of the students with father's name, marks and results.
Denying the information, the central public information officer of the university had responded that the information requested is treated as "personal information of the students concerned, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest".
Information commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu, however, said, "With regard to the question that whether disclosure of such identification-related information causes invasion of privacy, the PIO has not put forward any evidence or explained possibility to show that disclosure of degree related information infringes the privacy or causes unwarranted invasion of privacy".
During the hearing before the commission, CPIO Meenakshi Sahay said there are 2,00,000 students in "this year's BA program, and unless the subject of BA program is specified, it will be difficult to give the information sought such as the number of students appeared in the year 1978".
She also said the results in the year in question were not in digitised form.
Neeraj said Delhi University used to publish such results on the notice board and at times in newspapers also, which means the information sought was available with the public authority and was published or put in public domain without any limitations mentioned by the CPIO.
The issue regarding the degree records of the year cropped up after Aam Aadmi Party raised questions about the degree of prime minister Narendra Modi, triggering a controversy.
"We have checked our records and it has been authenticated that prime minister Narendra Modi's degree is authentic. He cleared the examination in 1978 and was awarded the degree in 1979," Delhi University registrar Tarun Das had said last year after the row erupted.
