Read Time: 05 minutes

Synopsis

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday upheld the Rs 25,000 fine imposed on Arvind Kejriwal in the Narendra Modi academic degree case, asserting that the Delhi Chief Minister had attempted to politicize the issue and misuse the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).

A single judge bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav emphasized that Kejriwal's use of the RTI Act was an abuse of process, diverting and misdirecting proceedings.The fine was justified as costs for this misconduct.

The court rejected Kejriwal's review petition, emphasizing that the Office Register submitted by the University sufficed to show Modi's degree.

The judge also criticized Kejriwal's persistence in keeping the issue alive despite legal remedies being exhausted. The review plea dismissal affirmed the earlier high court judgment.

In June this year, Kejriwal had moved the high court seeking review of the high court judgment of March 31, 2023 which had set aside a 2016 order by the Central Information Commission to the Gujarat University to disclose the degree of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In his plea, Kejriwal had contended that it was only during the hearing before the court, the University had first time contended that the Prime Minister's graduation degree was available on the website. "But upon a search of the official website of the Gujarat University, no such degree appears," the review petition had stated.

He had also contended that the high court had wrongly perceived that he persisted with the matter in seeking information and hence cost of Rs 25,000 was imposed.

However, while dismissing the review petition as well, the high court noted that the review application was essentially filed on the ground that the University had merely placed the register showing the conferment of the degree i.e. the Office Register and not the degree itself. 

The register is a document which is a contemporaneous record which reflects the conferment of the degree in question, the single judge bench held.

Court agreed with the submission made by Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India that though the office records of the University showed the qualification of the Prime Minister, Kejriwal having lost in his legal remedy as the petition was allowed, continued to harp upon his pursuit in following a cause by proceeding in the review application in a manner which did not reflect good taste.

Further regarding the imposition of cost on Delhi Chief Minister, court said that he tried to deflect the entire proceedings to politicise the issue as was evident from the letter addressed to the CIC by him.

This clearly was an abuse of the process of the RTI machinery. Costs, therefore, are justified, the high court held.