The Delhi High Court on Monday set aside a Central Information Commission order from 2017 directing the Central Board of School Education to disclose details about former Union minister Smriti Irani’s Class 10 and 12 records to a Right to Information applicant, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice Sachin Datta was hearing a petition filed by the Central Board of School Education against the information panel’s order. Datta said that there was no implicit public interest involved that would require such details to be disclosed under the Right to Information Act.

“The concerned educational qualifications are not in the nature of any statutory requirement for holding any public office or discharging official responsibilities,” Bar and Bench quoted the High Court as saying.

The judge added that just because such details pertained to a public figure, it did not extinguish the right to privacy and confidentiality over personal data that was unconnected with public duties.

The disclosure of academic details sans any overriding public interest would amount to an intrusion into the personal sphere, which is constitutionally protected after the KS Puttuswamy judgement of the Supreme Court, Datta added.

The judge was referring to a verdict delivered by the Supreme Court in August 2017 in the case of Justice KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India, which had unanimously declared the right to privacy a fundamental right of all Indians.

Datta also noted that the disclosure of such details could open the floodgates for similar demands motivated by “idle curiosity or sensationalism”, Bar and Bench reported.

The High Court also added that the Right to Information Act was enacted to promote transparency in government functioning and not to provide “fodder for sensationalism”.

Datta passed the order on a batch of petitions, including one filed by Delhi University against another Central Information Commission order directing it to disclose information about the Bachelor of Arts degree attained by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The university had said that the information panel’s order was liable to be set aside, arguing that the Right to Information application was politically motivated

The High Court earlier on Monday also set aside this order on the disclosure of Modi’s records.

The case

The Right to Information application seeking information from the Central Board of School Education about Irani’s records was filed by a man named Mohd Naushadudin in 2015. Irani was the Union human resource development minister at the time.

Naushadudin sought a copy of Irani’s Class 10 and 12 admit cards and marksheets.

The education board’s public information officer, however, rejected Naushadudin’s application, after which he challenged the order before the first appellate authority. But he was denied the information again.

Subsequently, he filed a second appeal with the Central Information Commission, which in January 2017 ordered the Central Board of School Education to “facilitate inspection of relevant records and provide certified copies of documents selected by the appellant free of cost, except personal details in admit card and mark sheet,” Bar and Bench reported.

However, the education board filed an petition against the order in the High Court.

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