To check the growing menace of applicants submitting fake educational certificates to secure government jobs, the State government has now decided to get educational certificates submitted by aspirants verified by the respective universities, educational institutions, and examination authorities. A gazette notification in this regard has been issued on August 22.
According to the notification, the government has directed all heads of departments and selection and recruitment authorities to issue appointment orders to selected candidates only after getting their educational certificates verified and authenticated by the universities/institutions that have issued them. This comes in the wake of several cases that have come to the notice of the government wherein applicants have submitted fake marks cards to secure a job, the notification stated.
In May this year, the Commissioner of Revenue Land Survey System and Land Records had filed a cheating complaint against a land surveyor for securing a government job using fake educational certificates 20 years ago.
In his complaint, the Commissioner had said that D.N. Yashodamma, a resident of Vidyaranyapura, joined the Revenue Land Survey System and Land Records Department as a surveyor in 1999. While joining, she had submitted her pre-university marks card. She secured the job and was in government service until November 11, 2017.
The fraud came to light when a city-based advocate Ramakrishna D.N. filed a complaint with the department accusing Yashodamma of submitting a fake marks card for securing the job. The department initiated an inquiry and wrote to the PU Board to confirm if Yashodamma’s marks cards were genuine. The PU Board confirmed that the marks cards were fake. The departmental inquiry revealed that Yashodamma was not eligible for the job. Subsequently, a police complaint was filed to initiate legal action against her.
The police, who are probing whether verification of documents of the accused at the time of her appointment was done as per the procedure, have filed a case charging Yashodamma under Sections 466 (forgery), 419 (cheating by personation) 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seal), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 420 (cheating).
It was the practice that documents submitted by those selected for a government job were verified and tallied with the original documents submitted by the candidates. Now, apart from this verification, the educational certificates will be re-authenticated by the universities, educational institutions, and examination boards that have issued the certificates.
The government has directed Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, and heads of autonomous institutions coming under them, universities, public sector industries, commissions, boards and corporations, local bodies, and government-aided institutions to strictly follow this rule.