University received 81 forged SC certificates last year

“We were taken aback when we received this bundle of 40 SC certificates from a Tehsildar in Ghaziabad,marked ‘asathya’,” said a DU official.

The DU officials kater found that about “80 per cent” of the 81 certificates were issued from the same office. The University did not investigate or file a police complaint; it informed the colleges concerned and asked them to take appropriate action.

“Every year,we used to get a maximum of 25 forged certificates. In that context,the 81 we found in 2010 was significant. In fact,the process of verification of last year’s certificates is not yet over as a number of Tehsildars are yet to reply to our letters,” said the official.

“In March this year,the Proctor’s office wrote to the colleges,providing them a list of such students and directing them to issue show-cause notices,” said the official. The list of colleges was not available.

“There were about 20 colleges on the list. Most of them got back to us,saying that a number of the students on the list had dropped out,” said H P Singh,Chief Proctor of the university.

The University does not verify the certificates submitted by unreserved and OBC category candidates — colleges are expected to do so. SC and ST certificates are scrutinised at the University,as their admissions are done centrally. The process begins after admissions are closed. Officials said all SC/ST certificates are checked and copies are sent to the corresponding issuing authority for cross-checking.

A number of states have begun uploading the OBC certificates online.

“Uttar Pradesh does that,but there are cases where the upload does not happen. Some states have not begun uploading; and some southern states take their time,” said a college principal.