गुजरात विश्वविद्यालय ने केजरीवाल से लागत मांग रखी, मोदी डिग्री के RTI अनुरोध पर

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PM Modi Degree Row: Gujarat University Seeks Costs From Arvind Kejriwal, Says RTI Authorities' Time Shouldn't Be Wasted

LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK

16 Sept 2026 7:32 PM IST

The Gujarat University on Wednesday (September 16) urged the Gujarat High Court to impose costs on Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in his appeal challenging the quashing of a Central Information Commission (CIC) order directing disclosure of information concerning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree.Appearing for the University before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal...

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The Gujarat University on Wednesday (September 16) urged the Gujarat High Court to impose costs on Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in his appeal challenging the quashing of a Central Information Commission (CIC) order directing disclosure of information concerning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree.

Appearing for the University before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice DN Ray, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that costs should be imposed to ensure that the RTI Act is not misused and government officials are not made to spend productive working hours dealing with requests that do not serve the Act's purpose.

The Bench is hearing Kejriwal's appeal against the March 2023 judgment of a single judge, which had quashed the CIC's 2016 direction to Gujarat University to provide information concerning degrees in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The single judge had held that information concerning the Prime Minister's educational degrees was exempt from disclosure under Sections 8(1)(e) and 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act in the absence of a larger public interest warranting disclosure. The Court had also imposed a cost of ₹25,000 on Kejriwal.

The Solicitor General relied on the Supreme Court's judgment in CBSE & Anr. v. Aditya Bandhopadhyay & Ors. (2011), which cautioned against indiscriminate and impractical demands for information under the RTI Act, observing that such demands could divert public authorities' resources from productive administrative work.

Referring to the judgment, Mehta submitted,

"The appeal maybe heard and decided on merits. And cost maybe imposed. So that the very noble purpose and intent of the legislature under the RTI Act is not abused or misused and the authorities do not waste their time on unproductive work...What is public interest here? Suppose for holding a particular post, doctorate in physics is essential eligibility criteria and someone raises an issue that he is holding a public post and not having degree of PhD and therefore I'm seeking information from University, then that would be Public Interest as his being on the post depends upon that degree. RTI is not an enactment for purpose of curiosity seekers."

At the outset the SG submitted that the issue pertains to degree of students who have passed from the University and whether it would fall under exceptions in Section 8(1)(e) and (j) RTI Act.

"Degree in question is of constitutional functionary. University can have no objection in this part case to disclose or declare the decree. But University is contesting in principle because we have given degree to lakhs and lakhs of students and therefore this law needs to be settled..." the SG said.

SG Mehta said referred to Supreme Court judgements on concept of fiduciary relationship referred to under Section 8(1)(e) as per which information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship need not be disclosed, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information

At this stage the court orally said, "What we suppose, that there was absolutely no RTI application at all. No one had come forward to ask for information". To which the SG said that the court was right and that there was no application made.

He submitted that the proceedings had originated from a different request for information concerning Kejriwal, following which Kejriwal had responded by seeking information concerning the Prime Minister's degree.

For context, in the second appeal, the CIC treated Kejriwal's response as an RTI application in his capacity as a citizen and ordered disclosure (which came to be set aside).

The court then orally said that according to its understanding the very first step of passing such an order was without jurisdiction.

The court further orally said, "If there is no application there is no question of disclosure, according to our understanding...RTI has a procedure. Someone has to file an application, give correct details of what information he is seeking. Only then the application can be processed. There is a procedure of making application and processing of the same".

The SG agreed, stating that the RTI Act is a self contained code and cannot be bypassed. He said that neither the University and the person whose information was sought was not a party.

The Court then orally remaked that the procedure under the Act has to be strictly followed where the authority will be required to apply his mind on exemptions under Section 8 and person whose information is given will have a right of appeal; here that right was also taken away. "Otherwise the Act will be misused," the court orally said.

The matter is now listed for Kejriwal's rejoinder submissions on September 21 at 2:30pm.

Case title: ARVIND KEJRIWAL v/s GUJARAT UNIVERSITY & ORS.

R/CA/2234/2023 IN F/LPA/36863/2023 IN R/SCA/9476/2016

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