‘IRANI ASKED DU NOT TO REVEAL HER EDUCATION DETAILS’

Textiles minister Smriti Irani asked Delhi University’s school of open learning not to release her educational records under the RTI but the university may soon not have a choice.

NEW DELHI: Textiles minister Smriti Irani asked Delhi University’s school of open learning not to release her educational records under the right to information law but the university may soon not have a choice.

The central information commission has told the university’s open school to produce the documents for its perusal before it delivers its order on a RTI application from a Jharkhand resident, Mohd Naushaduddin.

The commission had initially told the university to produce the information in December. But when the university’s information officer skipped the hearing twice, Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu gave him one last opportunity to appear before the commission on February 10.

The school of open learning had told the commission in an earlier hearing that it had decided not to release the information about Irani’s educational records at her request.

“The CPIO (central public information officer) pleaded that information sought was given by the former HRD Minister in fiduciary capacity and hence could not be divulged,” Acharyulu said.

But there is no way the commission, which rejected a similar argument from the central board of secondary education earlier this week, can come to a different conclusion.