Govt cracks down on employees with fake caste certificates

In a crackdown on appointments using forged scheduled or backward caste certificates, all central government departments have been asked to collect details from the organisations under them and initiate action.

Employees who got jobs through such fake or forged caste certificates should be removed or dismissed in accordance with relevant service rules, the Centre has said.

The move assumes significance as over 1,800 appointments, a majority of them in financial sectors like public sector banks and insurance companies, were allegedly secured through fake caste certificates, official data reveals.

According to existing norms, if it is found that a government servant had furnished false information or produced a false certificate in order to secure appointment he should not be retained in service.
 

"Thus when an appointing authority comes to know that an employee had submitted a false/fake caste certificate, it has to initiate action to remove or dismiss such an employee from service as per the provisions of relevant service rules," the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in a recently issued directive.

It has been decided to collect information from all departments about appointments made on the basis of fake or false caste certificates and the follow up action taken thereon, it said.

"Therefore, all the ministries/departments are requested to collect information from all organisations under their administrative control about the cases where the candidates 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 and send a consolidated report in this regard," the directive said.

Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh had said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on March 29 that 1,832 appointments were allegedly secured on the basis of fake caste certificates.

Of these, 276 had resulted in suspension or removal, 521 were entangled in litigations and disciplinary proceedings were pending in the remaining 1,035 cases, he said.

A total of 1,296 cases of jobs secured allegedly through fake caste certificates were under the Department of Financial Services.

As many as 157 such cases were in State Bank of India, 135 in Central Bank of India, 112 in Indian Overseas Bank, 103 in Syndicate Bank, and 41 each in New India Assurance and United India Assurance.