In a case pertaining to the veracity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic qualification, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked a Right to Information activist if there was any “public interest” in his request to obtain records of students who had cleared the Bachelor of Arts course from Delhi University in 1978, reported Bar and Bench.

The court was hearing a 2017 petition by Delhi University challenging an order of the Central Information Commission directing it to allow the inspection of records.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has claimed that Modi was awarded a BA degree from Delhi University in 1978 and a Master of Arts degree from Gujarat University in 1983.

Critics and the Opposition Aam Aadmi Party have alleged that the degrees are fabricated.

Appearing for Delhi University on Tuesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the High Court that something of “interest to the public” is not the same as “public interest”, The Indian Express reported. Thus, no one can demand details of the degree under the Right To Information Act simply out of curiosity, he added.

Mehta added that the university holds details of all students’ degrees and marksheets only in a “fiduciary capacity” and that they were still matters of “personal information”.

Fiduciary refers to an organisation that is trusted to manage property for another entity.

Advocate Sanjay Hegde, representing the applicant, argued that educational details are public information, often shared on noticeboards and newspapers.

“There may be offices which require qualification and offices which don’t,” Hegde added. “Public interest weighs towards disclosure and against concealment. Public interest in people holding elected offices require disclosures of a lot of things, including assets and liabilities…when it comes to a question of academic qualification of a person, what is a public authority obliged to do?”

The court will continue hearing the case on February 19.

The case

Neeraj Kumar, a Right to Information activist, had sought details about students from the Delhi University’s BA programme in 1978, including their roll numbers, marks and if they passed or failed the course.

The university’s central public information officer denied the request on the grounds that it was “third party information”, according to Live Law. The activist then moved the Central Information Commission.

In 2016, the commission ordered the university to release the information. It ruled that the Delhi University was a public body and all information related to its degrees was available in the institution’s register, which is a public document.

The university had previously argued in the High Court that the roll numbers, names and marks of all students were exempted from disclosure.

Also read: Modi’s marksheet: Five reasons why Delhi University must not stonewall RTI inquiries on the subject