The Supreme Court has stayed proceedings before a trial court on a defamation complaint filed by Gujarat University against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP MP Sanjay Singh for alleged remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi s educational qualifications. The court asked the Gujarat High Court to take a decision within four weeks on a plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders seeking quashing of the summonses issued to them by the trial court.
In an order passed on April 17 this year, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jayeshbhai Chovatiya while issuing summons, had said that the statements made by Kejriwal and Singh were prima facie defamatory.
It is not clear at all as to how precisely would the individual’s – in this case PM Modi's – privacy would be violated by unravelling details of his qualifications.
In setting aside the Central Information Commission’s 2016 direction to the Gujarat University to disclose information on the prime minister’s MA degree, the high court failed to ask what injury to public interest that disclosure would cause.
Justice Biren Vaishnav also set aside the order of the Chief Information Commission (CIC) which directed the public information officer (PIO) of PMO and the PIOs of Gujarat University and Delhi University to furnish details of PM Narendra Modi s graduate and postgraduate degrees