On July 7, Gujarat HC to hear Kejriwal's review petition on PM Modi's degree

The Gujarat High Court will on July 7 hear Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's review petition regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's educational degree.

This comes after the court on March 31 had set aside an order from the Central Information Commission (CIC) that directed the Gujarat University to search for information regarding Modi's degree.

The court also had that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was not obligated to provide the degree and post-graduate degree certificates of the Prime Minister.

It further imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Kejriwal.

Justice Biren Vaishnav, after admitting the review petition, issued notices to the Gujarat University, the Centre, the Chief Information Commissioner, and former CIC M. Sridhar Acharyulu, who had passed the order.

In his review petition, Kejriwal highlighted that Modi's post-graduate degree was not available on the university's website or in the public domain, contradicting the claims made by the institute and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the university.

The review petition pointed out that although the court had recorded that the degree was available on the varsity's website based on Mehta's submissions, a scan of the site revealed that the degree was not accessible, but instead, a document referred to as OR (Office Register) was displayed.

Kejriwal argued that Mehta had orally submitted for the first time on the day of the hearing that the degree was available on the website, leaving no opportunity for verification, and the OR document cannot be considered a degree as claimed by the university.

The AAP convenor clarified that he had not filed any application for information and had only written a letter in response to a letter from the CIC in April 2016.

He stated that he never requested the CIC to treat him as an applicant for the information and that the CIC had taken up the proceedings suo motu.

The review petition sought a review of the judgment and a stay on the implementation of the verdict until final disposal.