‘No degree if caste certificate is fake’

SC Rules State Can Also Recover Expenses

Coming down heavily on those who secure admission to professional courses through forged SC/ST certificates, the Supreme Court has warned that the erring student is liable to be stripped of the degree.

“There may be cases where it will not be proper to permit the student to retain the degree obtained by making a false claim. One example is where the candidates secure seats by producing forged or fake caste certificates,” said a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishanan and Justice R V Raveendran.

Differing with an earlier judgment that in all cases it would serve no purpose to strip the student of the degree as he has already studied the course, the CJI, writing the judgment for the bench, said such a proposition could not have universal application as facts of each case differ.

The case before the bench related to one Yogesh Ramachandra Naikwadi, who claimed to be an ST. This was rejected by the scrutiny committee, but he was granted admission to a Maharashtra engineering college on the basis of interim orders from the high court. The HC, later, dismissed his petition with a direction for recall of his degree.

The bench said the court’s earlier judgment could not be taken to have laid down a proposition that in every case, where a candidate’s caste claim was rejected by a caste verification committee, the candidate should invariably be permitted to retain the benefit of the admission and the consequential degree, irrespective of the facts. However, it allowed Naikwadi to retain the degree on the ground that if it was recalled it would benefit none. The seat he had occupied could not be allotted to anyone else as the admission was taken more than 13 years back, it said. Taking a lenient view as he had not forged any caste certificate, the bench said Naikwadi could not claim or seek any further benefit by claiming ST status.

“If the state has spent or incurred any expenditure on his professional degree education by extending benefit of exemption from payment of fee or award of scholarship or benefit of concession in fee by treating him as an ST candidate, Naikwadi cannot retain such financial benefits,” the bench said. The state would take appropriate steps to recover all such amount from him and if he failed to pay, the government would initiate action for stripping him of the degree, it said.

The Times of India 9 April 2008, P 13 Delhi
With thanks from The Time of India
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