Court dismisses plea seeking to summon Smriti Irani in fake degree row

The Patiala House court dismissed the fake degree case against former Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani today.

Refusing to summon Irani in the fake degree case, the court dismissed it on the ground that there was a 11-year delay in filing the complaint and the lack of original documents available with the Delhi University.

The court observed that the complaint was filed to harass Irani, because she is a central minister.

Irani's educational qualifications came under scanner after she contested the 2004 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier, the Election Commission submitted the required documents.

Section 125A of RPA deals with penalty for filing a false affidavit and entails a jail term of up to six months or a fine or both.

 

Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh reserved its order for today after the Election Commission filed the documents in a sealed cover relating to Irani's educational qualification submitted by her for contesting the 2004 general elections.

Irani had given information about her educational qualifications in affidavits to the Election Commission to contest various elections.

In June last year, a case was filed by freelance writer Ahmer Khan, who accused Irani of providing contradictory affidavits about her educational qualifications during different elections.

Following the court's direction, Delhi University had also submitted that the documents pertaining to Irani's B A course in 1996, mentioned by her in an affidavit filed during 2004 Lok Sabha elections, were yet to be found.

However, while filing affidavit in her Rajya Sabha nomination papers from Gujarat in 2011, she said her highest educational qualification was B.com, Part 1 (correspondence course) from Delhi University.