A Delhi court has summoned — from Delhi University and the Election Commission — the records of educational qualifications of Union Minister for Human Resources Development Smriti Irani.
The court sought them on Friday during the hearing of a complaint alleging that Ms. Irani had given different educational qualifications in three affidavits filed before the Election Commission (EC) while filing her nominations for the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha polls.
Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain had earlier asked the complainant, freelance writer Ahmer Khan, to produce the Minister’s education records, while recording his pre-summoning evidence to be exhibited in the court.
Having failed to obtain them, the complainant later moved an application urging the court to pass a direction to the Election Commission and the university to produce Ms. Irani’s educational records.
Plea allowedAllowing his plea, Mr. Jain said: “Keeping in view the grounds mentioned in the application, the plea to direct the officials of the Election Commission and Delhi University to bring the records is allowed.’’
The complainant alleged that in the nomination papers for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Ms. Irani said she had completed B.A. in 1996 from Delhi University (correspondence course) but in the nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections in 2011, she said her highest qualification was B.Com Part-1 from the School of Open Learning from the same university.
Again in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections which the Minister contested from Amethi, she claimed in her affidavit that she had completed B.Com Part-I from the School of Open Learning from Delhi University, the complainant alleged.
The matter will now come up for pre-summoning evidence on March 16, 2016.
