Delhi University told the High Court on Thursday that it had no objections to presenting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bachelor of Arts degree from 1978 to the court, but maintained that it could not disclose it to strangers, The Hindu reported.

Justice Sachin Datta of the High Court on Thursday reserved his verdict on the university’s 2017 plea challenging the Central Information Commission's order directing it to allow the inspection of records.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the university, contended that the information panel’s order was liable to be set aside. He alleged that the Right to Information application in the case was politically motivated.

The solicitor general had earlier argued that mere curiosity was not reason enough to approach Right to Information fora.

“Here is a case where a stranger walks into the RTI office of University and says, out of 10 lakh students, give me degree of X,” he said, according to Live Law. “The question is whether anyone can walk in and ask for degrees of others?”

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

Fiduciary capacity refers to an arrangement in which an organisation or individual is trusted to manage property for another entity.

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

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.

The case

Neeraj Kumar, a Right to Information activist, had sought details about students from 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”. The activist then moved the Central Information Commission.

In 2016, the commission ordered the university to release the information. It ruled that 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