Modi degree row: Information commissioner who allowed inspection of 1978 DU records removed from charge

Information commissioner MS Acharyulu's charge of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry was taken away two days after his order on allowing the inspection of Delhi University's 1978 BA degree records — the same year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi graduated from the university — was made public. 

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According to an order issued by chief information commissioner RK Mathur on Tuesday, all complaints and appeals related to HRD Ministry will now be looked into by information commissioner Manjula Parashar, the Indian Express reported. 

Acharyulu had told the Delhi University on December 21 that they would have to make public 1978 records after an RTI applicant had sought the details. However, the order became public on January 9. The university had earlier responded saying it was the "personal information of the students concerned, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest."

The order comes a little more than a week after an order regarding allocating work to Acharyulu in the ministry. He had ordered making the DU records public before this. 

While the university had declined to make the records public, the commission had said that it falls under public interest. Mathur and Acharyulu have made no comments on the matter. 

BJP had said in 2016 that Modi completed his BA in political science from distance learning programme of Delhi University in 1978, and the DU registrar Tarun Das confirmed it. 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has repeatedly demanded that Modi's educational records be made public, but to no avail. 

An RTI applicant, Neeraj, had filed his plea regarding the number of students who took BA exam in 1978, their names and those of their fathers, roll numbers and marks obtained. 

Acharyulu, however, said, "The PIO has not put forward any evidence or explained possibility to show that disclosure of degree-related information infringes the privacy or causes unwarranted invasion of privacy."