University claims Delhi law minister's certificate is fake

A Bihar-based university on Monday told the Delhi High Court that the provisional degree on the basis of which Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar enrolled as a lawyer is fake.

A Bihar-based university on Monday told the Delhi High Court that the provisional degree on the basis of which Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar enrolled as a lawyer is fake.

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An inquiry report submitted by Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, Bihar, to the court said that Tomar’s provisional certificate purportedly issued by the university is “fabricated and does not exist in the institution’s record”.

The university’s report said the serial number of the provisional certificate in the record showed the name of some other person and not that of Tomar. The university was responding to the notice issued by the court on a plea alleging that Tomar got himself enrolled as an advocate on the basis of a “false and bogus” graduation degree.

An Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson told HT that Tomar will respond to the allegation in court. “It is a sub judice matter, and we are not going to comment on it.”

For Tomar — who is currently holding additional charge of tourism and art and culture — it is not the first allegation over his educational certificates.

Earlier, an RTI query to Ram Manohar Lahia Avadh University, where Tomar had claimed to obtain an undergraduate degree in science, also revealed that it did not have any records of granting any degree to him. The university said that the undergraduate degree, marksheets and roll number submitted by Tomar at the time of his admission to the LLB course were “completely fake”.

BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg, who had fought the Assembly polls earlier this year against Tomar, dragged him to court, claiming that he made wrong declaration of his educational qualification in the nomination papers.

The HC asked the Election Commission to preserve all the documents filed during the assembly polls by Tomar and submit them in a sealed cover before it.

Making a false declaration in the affidavit is an offence under Section 125A if the Representation of People Act, punishable with imprisonment up to six months, or with fine, or both.

Last month, the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) issued notice to the minister on a complaint alleging that he used forged and fabricated documents to enroll himself as an advocate. The bar council initiated an inquiry after it received a complaint from advocate Ripudaman Singh Bhardwaj seeking cancellation of Tomar’s registration as an advocate and initiation of criminal proceedings.