Representative image of UPSC exam aspirants.
Credit: DH Photo/S K Dinesh
Close on the heels of the controversy surrounding former IAS-trainee Puja Khedkar faking documents to avail attempts in the civil services exam, a recent report by The Indian Express has revealed that 1,084 complaints of government jobs being acquired on fake caste certificates were tracked in an official scrutiny that lasted nine years till 2019.
The report quoted records from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) which show that from the 1,084 cases, 92 personnel were dismissed from service.
The records accessed by the publication under the Right To Information (RTI) Act had data for 59 of the 93 ministries and departments under the government. These records show that the fake caste certificate menace is most rampant in Railways which logged 349 such complaints in the said period of time, followed by the Department of Post (259). Ministry of Shipping and Department of Food and Public Distribution had 202 and 138 such cases, respectively.
The report also said that as per DoPT, several of these cases are still pending in various courts.
The Department of Personnel and Training had started collecting data about such complaints after a recommendation by the then Parliament Committee on the Welfare of SC/ST headed by the then Lok Sabha BJP MP Ratilal Kalidas Varma.
The DoPT had issued first communication in this regard to the ministries on January 28, 2010. The communication read, “Collect information from all organisations under their administrative control about the cases where the candidate got/alleged to have got appointment against vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes on the basis of false/ fake caste certificate."
Last communication seeking data based on the Parliamentary Committee's recommendation was issued on May 16, 2019. There is no such data available after 2019, stated the report.
“DoPT has issued instructions from time to time to all the State and UT governments to ensure timely verification of caste certificate. It is the responsibility of the concerned State or UT Government to issue and verify caste certificate,” the DoPT told The Indian Express in the RTI response.
As per a 1993 order of DoPT, if a government servant is found to have furnished false information or produced a false certificate in order to secure appointment, he/she will not be retained in service.