July 6, Thursday, the Supreme Court declared that anyone found guilty of using a forged caste certificate for getting education and employment will lose their degree and their job. To add to that, the guilty will be punished heavily too, announced the apex court.
If someone had committed a similar fraud to get a job, no matter how long they had been employed, their punishment will be inevitable too. “Even if a person has been in job for 20 years on the basis of a fake caste (document), he will lose the job and also get punished,” the court declared. There will be considerations or leniency to the one found fraudulent on the basis of their long years of service, as per the orders by the court.
Says the report that came in from the PTI, that last month itself, the Centre had made it clear that employees who got jobs using forged scheduled or backward caste certificates will be dismissed. All central government departments were also asked to collect details about such appointments from the various organisations under them by the Centre.
In a reply to the Lok Sabha in March, Minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh wrote that as many as 1,832 appointments were allegedly secured on the basis of fake caste certificates, of which 276 got termination, 521 had still been in embroilment and 1.035 cases are yet to be addressed.
Under the department of financial services alone, a total of 1,296 cases of jobs secured allegedly through fake caste certificates, covering right from the State Bank of India, Central Bank of India to the Indian Overseas Bank.