Smriti Irani's fake degree row: Court summons docs from Election Commission

New Delhi: A city court on Thursday asked the Delhi State Election Commission to file certain records relating to Union Minister Smriti Irani's educational qualification, filed by her while contesting 2004 general elections, on a complaint alleging she had given false information in her affidavit given to the poll panel.

Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh, who was expected to pronounce the order on whether to summon the politician as accused in the case, directed Election Commission officials to file the documents after noting that some clarifications were required in the matter.

During earlier hearings of the complaint filed by freelance writer Ahmer Khan, the court was told by a poll panel official that the documents filed by Irani regarding her educational qualification while filing nominations were not traceable. However, the information on this was available on its website, he had said.

In pursuance to the court's earlier direction, Delhi University had also submitted that the documents pertaining to Irani's BA course in 1996, as purportedly mentioned by her in an affidavit filed during 2004 Lok Sabha elections, were yet to be found.

The court had on November 20 last year allowed the complainant's plea seeking direction to the officials of EC and DU to bring the records of Irani's qualifications after he said he was unable to place them before the court.

The complainant had alleged that Irani had deliberately given discrepant information about her educational qualifications in affidavits filed before the poll panel in 2004, 2011 and 2014 and not given any clarification despite concerns being raised on the issue.

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 IPC and under section 125A of the Representation of the People Act (RPA).

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