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11. Prof. P.S. Khillare stated that information forming part of unpublished Ph.D. thesis could not be given at this time as JNU follows the policy of restricted access of Ph.D. thesis under UGC guideline of "Minimum Standards and Procedure for award of M.Phil/Ph.D. degree Regulation, 2009". As per the policy, JNU is under obligation not to disclose the contents of the Ph.D. research for a period of up to 3 years after award of the degree to the scholars. Ph.D. was not awarded as on first appeal.

12. Respondent PIO and Dean explained that appellant has raised several questions than seeking information, which cannot be given under RTI Act. The research scholar has studied the organochloring pesticides residues in soil and vegetables in Delhi under the supervision of Prof P.S Khillare, the Dean at the school of Environmental Sciences, JNU, New Delhi. A large set of research data has been created by Scholar Ms. Sapna Chaourasiya for her Ph.D. work under the supervision of the University, and part of the data has been used for two international peer reviewed research publications. He alleged that appellant had filed 7 RTI applications raising several questions related to these two publications (Vide JNU RTI Nos: 4647, 4693, 4728, 5179, 5297, 5510 and 5600). Only that which formed part of research data created by the research student for her Ph.D. work was not given. He relied upon the JNU/UGC guidelines, which imposed an embargo for period of up to 3 years after the award of Ph.D. to the candidates. Additionally, he contended that the research data was an intellectual property of the scholar and is exempted from disclosure under section 8(1)(d) of RTI Act. He also relied on the decision of the Commission in Case no. CIC/AT/A/2008/00533 dated 22.10.2008, denying the demand for data of researcher under RTI Act.

13. Research-supervising-Professor and University PIO also referred to the Consent Form for Digital Archiving given by scholar Ms. Sapna, to the Central Library, JNU to archive and to make available her dissertation in whole or in part in the University's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Archive ensuring access to the whole world under the conditions specified. It was also mentioned that all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis/dissertation was retained by her and that she also retained the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. On the option of scholar, the University recognised restrictions on access in exceptional circumstances. Requests for restriction for a period of up to maximum 3 years must be specified by the scholar explicitly. However, the digital contents on JNU INRANET will be available immediately after the award of degree. Respondent officer also pointed out that the scholar has marked the 3 years column for the release of the entire work for the worldwide access after.

...after successful evaluation process and announcements of the award of the M.Phil./Ph.D., the University shall submit a soft copy of the M.Phil./Ph.D. thesis to the UGC within a period of thirty days, for hosting the same in INFLIBNET, accessible to all Institutions/Universities.

16. On point no. 4, JNU refused as Ph.D. was not awarded as on 15.06.2015, date of their response. However the CPIO told the Commission that the degree was awarded in December 2015, but still the information could not be disclosed because the Academic Council Resolution has imposed a condition that the Thesis could not be accessed for three years from the date of submission. JNU deems it necessary to have such embargo to secure intellectual property rights of the scholar by preventing breach of the copyright.