Fake degree row: Court asks EC to give documents on Smriti Irani’s qualification

The Patiala House court on Thursday asked the Delhi State Election Commission to file a certificate to support the affidavit filed by it of Union minister Smriti Irani for contesting the Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk constituency in 2004.

Metropolitan magistrate Harvinder Singh, who was expected to pronounce the order on whether to summon the politician as accused in the case, has now given the commission a deadline of October 15 to produce the certificate.

Rajesh Inamdar, counsel appearing for the complainant, said, “The Election Commission’s officials do not have original copies of documents that Irani would have submitted, so the court has asked them to file a certificate in support of the documents they have produced.”

Under the IT Act, the court does not recognise photocopies unless they are certified, he added.

In June last year, a case was filed by freelance writer Ahmer Khan and student activist Nalin Narottam accusing Irani of providing contradictory affidavits about her educational qualifications in different elections.

They said that Irani, in her affidavit for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, stated her educational qualification as BA from Delhi University (School of Correspondence).

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

Khan had alleged that Irani had knowingly furnished misleading information about her qualifications and that a candidate, deliberately giving incorrect details, could be punished under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under section 125A of the Representation of the People Act (RPA).