It imposes a fine of Rs 25,000 on Arvind Kejriwal
Ahmedabad/New Delhi: The Gujarat High Court on Friday quashed a 2016 order of the Central Information Commission (CIC), which directed the Gujarat University to provide information on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, observing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief’s RTI plea appears to be more “politically vexatious and motivated” instead of being based on “sound public interest considerations”.
Holding that both, the request by Kejriwal and the order by the CIC were “absolutely casual” and there was an “indiscriminate misuse” of the RTI Act, Justice Biren Vaishnav also imposed a `25,000 fine on the AAP leader, and asked him to deposit the amount within four weeks to the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority (GSLSA). The court said the information sought is not relevant to the PM’s role.
Expressing surprise that the CIC entertained Kejriwal’s request and issued an order, the single judge bench said, “Such requests cannot be made so casually making mockery of the very intent and purpose of the RTI Act.”
“This court finds that the CIC while passing the impugned order was well aware that what it was directing was not a specific and certain but a fishing and roving enquiry,” the bench said in its 79-page order. It further observed that Kejriwal “doubtlessly used an appeal against him to kick-start and trigger a controversy not falling within the purview of the RTI Act”.
Allowing the Gujarat University’s appeal against the CIC directive, the court refused to stay his order as requested by Kejriwal’s lawyer Percy Kavina.
The AAP said it would appeal against the order before the division bench of the high court and noted that the cost imposed on Kejriwal came as a “surprise”.
Reacting to the verdict, Kejriwal asked in a tweet, “Doesn’t the country even have the right to know how much the PM has studied?”
The BJP, on its part, accused Kejriwal of “peddling lies” against Modi, and also cited instances of him tendering apologies to its leaders for levelling “unverified” allegations, “history is repeating itself”.
The Congress took a swipe at the government, saying there is a limit to even transparency in “New India”.
The bench agreed with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Gujarat University, that the insistence of Kejriwal to get the educational degree of Modi through RTI route, when the same is already available in public domain, also creates doubt on the bonafide and motive of the Delhi Chief Minister.
The court said once the CIC came to the finding that the information sought for was neither relatable to accountability and transparency in public functions discharged by Modi nor there was any larger public interest in disclosure of the said information, as in, the disclosure sought for was merely something which was of ‘interest to the public’ and a matter of political curiosity and not something which was in the public interest, then the Commission ought to have strictly applied the exemptions ought to have refused disclosure of the said information.
The Commission being a statutory authority ought to have kept the aforesaid principles in mind while dealing with the oral request of Kejriwal and ought not to have made an exception in the present case, it added.
“This court fails to comprehend the justification or the legal foundation on the basis of which the Commission has arrived at the said finding. The said decision of the CIC, in the opinion of the court, is contrary to the legal position and is, therefore, set aside. This court holds that in absence of any larger public interest, which is neither pleaded nor raised, the educational degrees of Narendra Damodardas Modi are exempted from disclosure under the provisions of section 8(1)(e) and (j) of the RTI Act.”
The court noted that during the course of the hearing full opportunity was once again given by it to Kejriwal to place his justification, as to what larger public purpose would be served in disclosing the educational degrees of Modi to him through the RTI route when the same was already available in public domain.
“In absence of any valid ground of public interest, this court finds that the application made by respondent no 2 (Kejriwal) also fails to qualify the public interest test contemplated in Subash Chandra Agarwal, (2019 verdict) due to ostensible motive and purpose which appears to this court to be more politically vexatious and motivated, instead of, being based on sound public interest considerations.”
Treating the present case as an exception completely justifies the submission of the petitioner (university) that extraneous considerations have gone into the decision making process of the Commission, the court said.
“There has been an indiscriminate misuse of the salutary provisions of the RTI Act in the present case for the purposes not contemplated by the legislature while enacting the said Act. Having found both the requests by respondent No.2 (Kejriwal) and the order by the CIC being absolutely causal and having found that neither such request was competent nor such an order could have been passed and keeping in view the salutary object of the RTI Act, this court thinks it fit to allow the present petition with a direction to Respondent No.2 to pay costs,” it said.
Justifying imposition of the fine, the court observed that despite the degree in question being put on the website of the university for all to see and Kejriwal never ever disputing the degree in question either during the pendency of these proceedings or even during final hearing, he has persisted with the matter.
“This is one more reason to impose costs while allowing this petition.”
Justice Vaishnav said since the CIC was well aware of the fact that the university will face difficulty in searching that information, it did not set any time limit.
In April 2016, the then CIC M. Sridhar Acharyulu had directed the Delhi University and the Gujarat University to provide information to Kejriwal on the degrees that Modi received.
Three months later, the Gujarat High Court stayed the CIC order after the varsity appealed against the directive.
The CIC order came a day after Kejriwal wrote to Acharyulu, saying he has no objection to government records about him being made public and wondered why the commission wanted to “hide” information on Modi’s educational qualifications.
Based on the letter, Acharyulu directed the Gujarat University to give records of Modi’s educational qualifications to Kejriwal.
In May 2016, the then Vice Chancellor of the Gujarat University, M.N. Patel, had announced that Modi completed his MA in Political Science in 1983 with 62.3% as an external student.
Solicitor General Mehta had earlier vehemently objected to the CIC’s order, saying “irresponsible childish curiosity” of someone cannot become public interest under the RTI Act.