Rs 25,000 fine: Arvind Kejriwal seeks HC order review

AHMEDABAD: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has sought a review of the Gujarat high court order fining him Rs 25,000 and censuring him for persisting with the matter for the disclosure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's MA degree by Gujarat University under provisions of the Right to Information Act.
Kejriwal urged the HC to review its March 31 order, saying solicitor general Tushar Mehta made a statement in court on February 9 that Modi's degree has been posted by GU on its website and was hence in the public domain. Kejriwal said a scan of GU's portal found that Modi's degree was not available, instead the office register (OR) was on display. "It is quite obvious that the format of a degree is different from that of an OR, which is displayed on the website of the petitioner," the review petition reads.
It has been contended that it was the university's claim regarding the display of Modi's degree on its website that led the high court to observe that the degree is in the public domain. As the degree is not on GU's portal, the high court's judgment "suffers from the error apparent on the face of the record and permitting them would lead to failure of justice".
In his petition, Kejriwal stated that the university's statement on the posting of Modi's degree on its website seems to be incorrect and the "OR also appears to be cryptic and without any seal and signature of the authority".
Kejriwal also took exception to HC's observation that he persisted with the matter. He clarified that he had only written a letter to the chief information commissioner (CIC) in response to a communication and never requested the CIC to treat him as an applicant for information on Modi's degree. The CIC took it up suo motu and the observation that he persisted with the matter was thus not correct.
Justice Biren Vaishnav admitted the review petition on Friday and posted a hearing on June 30.
In this case, one Niraj Saxena had demanded information relating to Kejriwal through RTI. While supplying details, the Delhi CM wrote to the CIC and said that there was doubt in the people's minds regarding the PM's degree, and Modi's degrees should be made public. On April 29, 2016, the CIC ordered Delhi University and GU to supply copies of Modi's Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, respectively. GU challenged this order before the high court, leading to the fine on Kejriwal.