A verification exercise of educational credentials submitted by lawyers registered with the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh has revealed 11 forged High School and Intermediate certificates, officials from the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UP Board) said.
Initiated last August following Supreme Court directions, the verification process is being conducted by the UP Board headquarters and its five regional offices to authenticate academic certificates submitted by advocates enrolled with bar councils across the state.
According to UP Board records, 70,766 of the 202,421 certificates received for scrutiny have been verified. Of these, 11 pertaining to Class 10 and Class 12 qualifications were found to be fake. Nine of the forgeries were detected in districts under the Prayagraj regional office, while one was identified in each of the Varanasi and Bareilly regions.
Records for examinations conducted before 1984 are being verified at the UP Board headquarters in Prayagraj, while certificates issued after 1984 have been sent to regional offices in Prayagraj, Varanasi, Meerut, Bareilly and Gorakhpur. As records from 2002 onwards are available online, Bar Council authorities have been advised to opt for digital verification.
Of the 60,873 certificates received by the Prayagraj regional office, only 6,242 have been verified, with nine found to be forged. Statewide, verification of the remaining 131,655 certificates continues.
{{/usCountry}}Of the 60,873 certificates received by the Prayagraj regional office, only 6,242 have been verified, with nine found to be forged. Statewide, verification of the remaining 131,655 certificates continues.
{{/usCountry}}“Instructions have been issued to expedite the verification process so that scrutiny of all pending certificates can be completed as soon as possible,” said UP Board secretary Bhagwati Singh.
The ongoing exercise is expected to ensure the authenticity of educational qualifications furnished by practising lawyers and strengthen transparency in the legal profession.