Colleges agonise over fake OBC certificates

Verifying OBC certificates has become a nightmare for college authorities. On Friday, Hindu College officials came across a fake OBC certificate of a candidate seeking admission in B.Sc. (honours) Statistics.

Verifying OBC certificates has become a nightmare for college authorities. On Friday, Hindu College officials came across a fake OBC certificate of a candidate seeking admission in BSc. (honours) Statistics.

HT Image

"The girl came to us on Thursday with a certificate, which clearly stated that her father's annual income was Rs 10 lakh per annum. Since she did not fall in the non-creamy layer category, we told her she couldn't be admitted. The next day, she came back with a certificate saying her father's income was Rs 3 lakh. As we knew her case well, we asked her to leave," said Poonam Sethi, who teaches B.Com. at Hindu College.

But hers is not a lone case. Teachers at all colleges are facing the problem. "We have a real problem in distinguishing between a fake and original certificate. Some don't have any mention of creamy or non-creamy layer, which is mandatory," said a Kirori Mal College teacher, who did not wish to be named.

While the university scrutinises the certificates of SC/ST and physically handicapped candidates, admission under the OBC quota is the responsibility of colleges.

The colleges send the certificates to the university administration for scrutiny after the admission process is over.

"If the government has made the provision for reservation, they should also make a fool-proof mechanism to ensure fake certificates are not issued," Sethi said.

The number of OBC admissions this year has also seen a hike. "The response is certainty better. We were not able to fill seats till the fourth list last year, but this year the trend is looking up," said Bhim Sen Singh, principal, KMC.

In off-campus colleges as well, the number of admissions are more as compared to last year.

"The seats in most courses in OBC category were filled in second list. We may come up with third list with marginal dip in cut-offs for a few courses — tourism and office management, marketing and management of insurance," said Inderjeet Singh, principal, College of Vocational Studies.

(with inputs from Hema Rawat)