New Delhi: Delhi High Court has granted two weeks’ additional time to Delhi University (DU) to file its objection in connection with an appeal filed over its refusal to disclose details of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bachelor’s degree.The counsel for the appellants has urged the court to condone the delay even as DU wants it to be dismissed on grounds of delay at the very outset.HC had earlier given three weeks to the varsity to file its objections, but on Monday, its counsel said objections to the delay will be filed within two weeks and requested that the issue be decided after filing the response. A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia then listed the matter for next hearing on Aug 20. Earlier, DU, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, had said “there was nothing in the matter” and an appeal against a single-judge verdict was being preferred “only to sensationalise”. Appeals have been filed challenging a single judge’s order which had set aside a Central Information Commission (CIC) decision directing disclosure of PM Modi’s degree. The appellants are RTI activist Neeraj, AAP’s RS member Sanjay Singh and advocate Mohd Irshad. Last year, the single judge had set aside the CIC order, saying only because PM Modi held a public office, it did not render all his “personal information” to public disclosure. It ruled out any “implicit public interest” in the information sought, and said the RTI Act was enacted to promote transparency in govt functioning and “not to provide fodder for sensationalism”. Following an RTI application by Neeraj, CIC on Dec 21, 2016, allowed inspection of records of all students who cleared the BA exam in 1978 — the year PM Modi also passed it. The single judge had passed the combined order in six petitions, including the one filed by DU, challenging the CIC verdict by which the varsity was directed to disclose the details related to Modi’s bachelor degree.
