By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Disclosure of the details of the degree of the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi by Delhi University will be delayed further, because a division bench of the Delhi High court has flagged on November 12, 2025 the delay by the four petitioners in filing appeals and said that it will first hear this aspect before examining the merit of the case.
The Division Bench comprised of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedda, however, issued direction to the Delhi University to file its objections to the condonation of delay in three weeks, and the appellants may also file a response to the objections.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for Delhi University and said that he has not even gone through the reasons cited by the petitioners for delay in filing appeal. However, he said that he has no hesitation in arguing the case on merits as well.
The Division Bench has posted the matter for further hearing on January 16, 2026. It is now clear that technicality has been accorded the top most priority, before the merit of the case.
The four appeals have been filed against the judgement of the Single Bench of Justice Sachin Datta delivered on August 25, 2025, which he had reserved on February 27, 2025. Justice Datta took six months to deliver it. Justice Datta had quashed the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) order of December 2016 to disclose PM’s degree details.
The Issue of Modi’s degree has special significance, since the opposition parties, especially Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and several RTI activists have alleged that Narendra Modi has been contesting elections by submitting affidavit containing false information about his degree. If the allegation will be found correct, PM Modi’s wins can become null and void as per the rules. The Petitioners say that Election Commission of India has no interest is verifying the affidavit submitted by PM Modi. It is in this backdrop, political analysts believe that the case should be heard on its merit, and technicalities should not be allowed to veil the truth.
The appeals have been filed by AAP leader Sanjay Singh, RTI activist Neeraj Sharma, and advocate Md Irshad, who were also petitioners in the original case before the CIC. However, appeals challenging the August 25 judgement were filed beyond the limitation period, the Division Bench noted, therefore, it would first hear the matter on the issue of condonation of delay.
The last judgement by Justice Datta implies that no one has right to know the truth about his academic qualification, and even the University does not have to disclose it, since degree is PM Narendra Modi’s ‘personal information’. However, many analysts, however, disagree with the Delhi High Court’s views and say if it is correct position then everyone else’s degree must be their personal information, and no one should ask or compel anyone for their degrees, for anything right from applying for jobs to submitting affidavits to contest elections. Why the Election Commission of India asks for degrees? Privacy is any citizen’s right, and one should not be compelled to reveal, but what about educational qualification? What is there in his degree that needs concealment?
Justice Sachin Datta had said that there lies a “special relationship of trust and confidence” between a student and a university which is fiduciary in nature, and “disclosure of academic details sans any overriding public interest, would amount to an intrusion into the personal sphere”.
Justice Datta had argued that the framework of the university’s statutes “does not permit the disclosure of marks/grades to any third party”, and “there is a legitimate expectation on the part of the students that confidentiality shall be maintained” with regard to their information, are also not acceptable, since Universities and institutions across the world publish the results of examinations publicly.
It should be noted that CIC had ordered an inspection of records of students who passed BA Programme from the varsity in 1978. It should be noted that according to PM Modi’s affidavits, he had graduated from the Delhi University with bachelor’s degree.
The Bench of the Delhi High Court has said further that information pertaining to an individual’s educational qualifications – including degrees and marks – falls within the ambit of “personal information” under provisions of the RTI Act.
It should be noted that after the order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) in 2016, Delhi University had refused to give information. In 2017, Delhi University had challenged the CIC order.
CIC had also directed the Gujarat University to “search for information” regarding PM Narendra Modi’s degree.PM Narendra Modi’s affidavit submitted before the ECI says that he had an MA degree from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad which he had passed in 1983. Gujarat University had refused to reveal the truth behind Modi’s degree and challenged the CIC order in Gujarat High Court. In 2023, Gujarat High Court had quashed and set aside the CIC order.
Justice Datta of Delhi high court heavily relied on the argument of the Gujarat High Court, and stated in his order “This court cannot be oblivious to the reality that what may superficially appear to be an innocuous or isolated disclosure could open the floodgates of indiscriminate demands, motivated by idle curiosity or sensationalism, rather than any objective ‘public interest’ consideration.
Both the Delhi University and Gujarat University had said that PM Narendra Modi’s degrees were ‘authentic’, but analysts have raised several questions regarding the authenticities on various grounds including technical ones.
In 2021, Gujarat University had provided details about PM Narendra Modi’s MA degree. Vice Chancellor M N Patel had said, “Narendra Damodardas Modi passed his M.A. in Political Science in 1983 with first class, securing 499 out of 800 marks, which comes to 62.3 per cent, as an external student.” However, the university had no records of his graduation degree. Mr. Patel said, “Mr. Modi was enrolled in the Gujarat University for post-graduation only, so we don’t have details of his B.A.”The question was raised at that time, “How could he get admission in M.A. in Gujarat University? While filing applications for M.A., he must have attached his B.A. degree. Why is the university not disclosing it?” There was no answer to this question yet.
Delhi University had clarified in 2016 that the PM’s records have been maintained in DU and he cleared his BA exams from the University in 1978. He was awarded the degree in 1979.DU also said that two different roll number’s were allotted to Modi in 1977 and 1978 and his name ‘Narendra Kumar Damodar Das Modi’, which was seen on a marksheet flashed by AAP leader Ashutosh on TV, is nothing but a spelling mistake.
Moments after Amit Shah flashed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BA and MA degrees at a press conference and demanded an apology from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for raking up a false issue, the AAP hit back, claiming that the degrees displayed by the BJP president were fake.
Apart from the name mismatch, there is also the date of birth mismatch in degrees and affidavits of PM Narendra Modi. Gujarat University mentioned his death of birth as August 29, 1949, while as per PM Modi’s website and other official records it is September 17, 1950. There is also no clarification available for this. (IPA Service)
