PM Degree Row: Delhi HC Grants DU 3 Weeks to Reply on Delayed Appeals

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted three week to Delhi University for filing its objection to the delay in appeals against an order refusing disclosure of details of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bachelor's degree.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the university, argued that “there was nothing in the matter” and it was “only to sensationalise.” A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia and listed the matter for hearing on April 27.

Appeals have been filed challenging a single judge's order, which had set aside a Central Information Commission decision directing disclosure of Modi's degree. The appellants before the division bench are RTI activist Neeraj, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, and advocate Mohd Irshad.

On August 25, 2025, the single judge had set aside the CIC order, saying that only because Mr Modi was holding a public office, it did not render all his “personal information” to public disclosure. It had ruled out any “implicit public interest” in the information sought, and said the RTI Act was enacted to promote transparency in government functioning and "not to provide fodder for sensationalism".

Following an RTI application by one Neeraj, the CIC on December 21, 2016, allowed inspection of records of all students who cleared the BA exam in 1978 -- the year Prime Minister Modi also passed it.

The single judge had passed the combined order in six petitions, including the one filed by the Delhi University, challenging the CIC by which the university was directed to disclose the details related to Modi's bachelor's degree.

University's counsel had sought the CIC order to be set aside, but said the varsity had no objection to showing its records to the court. The single judge had opined that the educational qualifications were not in the nature of any statutory requirement for holding any public office or discharging official responsibilities.

The situation might have been different, had educational qualifications been a prerequisite for eligibility to a specific public office, the judge had said, calling the CIC's approach "thoroughly misconceived".

The High Court had also set aside the CIC order, which directed the CBSE to provide copies of Class 10 and 12 records of former Union minister Smriti Irani.