Producing false marksheet amounts to cheating — SC

NEW DELHI, DEC 14: The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a person on charges of cheating for using a false marksheet to gain admi...

NEW DELHI, DEC 14: The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a person on charges of cheating for using a false marksheet to gain admission though it was not established that he had himself doctored the document.

“In our view it has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant used the duplicate certificate with changes as a true certificate, knowing it to be false in material particular and thereby got admission,” a bench comprising Justice M.B. Shah and Justice S.N. Variava said.

The trial court had convicted Tulsibhai Jivabhai Changani of Gujarat under various provisions of IPC including section 420, on the ground that he had produced a false marksheet to gain admission to a Polytechnic course in 1986.

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It had, however, held a possibility that Changani had got the marksheet amended either by himself or through somebody else.

The findings of the trial court had been upheld by the sessions court and the high court had refused to interfere with the conviction order.

Upholding the conviction for the judgment, Justice Variava said “looking to the nature of the offense and the fact that the appellant’s past and present record has been good and that he has already lost his career and is now married, we reduce the sentence to that already undergone.”