Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday said she will answer questions on her educational qualifications in court and not otherwise.

Taking questions at the India Today Woman Summit 2014 after addressing the gathering on A World of Change Why Women Need to Speak Up, Be Heard, Irani evaded queries from TV Today Managing Editor Rahul Kanwal. She said, "Please go and file a PIL against me in court, I shall give you your answer in court to settle this once and for all." Kanwal had asked her which of the two poll affidavits she had filed in 2004 and 2014 was real.

To an earlier question, Irani said, "I do have a degree from Yale as well, which I can bring out and show how Yale celebrated my leadership capacity."

Following this claim of a Yale University degree, Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi took to Twitter, tweeting a PTI report from 2013 that said 11 MPs, including Smriti Irani, were in New Haven, Connecticut (the Yale headquarters) for a six-day leadership programme. Another of Priyanka Chaturvedi's tweets is given below:

And our HRD minister forgot to mention her Yale degree in her affidavit this time. But all her affidavits have had different degrees, sigh. ; Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) August 9, 2014

Irani was at the centre of a raging controversy over her educational qualification a few months ago after it emerged that she had made contradictory declarations when she contested Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and 2014. The 2004 affidavit said that she was a BA (Honours) graduate through distance education and her 2014 affidavit claimed that she had passed B.Com (Honours) first year.