Fake certificates issue hits Telangana Intermediate Education

The Intermediate Education department in Telangana has uncovered fake educational certificates submitted by 37 government junior lecturers during their job regularisation in 2023. Following verification with universities, show-cause notices have been issued, with disciplinary and criminal action likely under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Hyderabad: The issue of fake certificates has hit Intermediate Education in the State. While the fake Fire No Objection Certificates (NOCs) submitted by some private junior colleges for obtaining affiliation caused ripples, the Intermediate Education department has now found fake educational certificates submitted by 37 government junior lecturers for their job regularisation in 2023.

As part of a fresh verification exercise, the department re-examined the certificates of nearly 360 government junior lecturers who were earlier regularised from contract services. Accordingly, information on the certificates’ authenticity was sought from respective universities.

---

As per the information received by the department, junior lecturers submitted post graduate or BTech certificates, which were not issued by respective universities. This prompted the department to recently issue show cause notices.

Junior lecturers were directed to respond to show cause notices as to why disciplinary action should not be initiated against them, besides filing a criminal case for forgery and cheating under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samitha, within seven days.

Given the vacancies, the department had appointed contract lecturers during the Congress and TDP governments in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State. Subsequently, the previous BRS government regularised services of the contract junior lecturers.

However, there were complaints alleging that several contract junior lecturers had submitted fake certificates for their job regularisation, prompting the department to hold multiple rounds of certificate verification.

During the initial verification itself, 20 junior lecturers who had submitted fake educational certificates were dismissed from the services. Another 20 were terminated during the regularisation process on similar grounds. Recently, a woman lecturer posted in Hyderabad was also dismissed after her certificates were found to be fake.