The Delhi High Court has postponed to July 25 the hearing of a petition challenging the Central Information Commission’s order allowing an activist to access Delhi University records from 1978, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s marksheet, The Hindu reported.

The court on Tuesday postponed the hearing after the university requested that the matter be adjourned as Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta was unavailable.

The prime minister reportedly graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the university in 1978.

After lawyer Trideep Pais – who is representing RTI activists, Anjali Bhardwaj, Nikhil Dey and Amrita Johri – told the court that the university was refusing to share details of exam results for only a particular year, Justice V Kameswar Rao asked the advocate if his clients were seeking information about a specific person. The petitioners have claimed that convocation and declaration of results are public events.

Sequence of events

In 2016, the Central Information Commission directed Delhi University to allow inspection of its records from 1978. Subsequently, the institution filed a plea asking the High Court to set aside the commission’s order.

On January 23, 2017, the High Court stayed the CIC’s order after the university argued that the CIC’S order was passed in “unexplainable haste” as the information sought “ is third party personal information.”

The three RTI activists then filed an intervention application asking the court to reject the university’s plea. In February 2018, the varsity told the court that it would not disclose the exam records as it had a fiduciary responsibility towards students.