In a major decision which can cost hundreds of jobs, the Centre on Thursday asked Ministries and Departments to identify and immediately dismiss employees who got jobs using forged Scheduled Caste (SC) or Backward Class (BC) certificates. The move assumes significance as over 1,800 appointments, a majority of them in financial sectors like public sector banks and insurance companies, were allegedly secured through fake caste certificates.
All the Central Government Departments have been asked to collect details about such appointments from the various organisations under them. According to existing norms, if it is found that a Government servant had furnished false information or produced a false certificate in order to secure appointment action has to be taken which could take several years due to procedural lapses.
Centre has found 1,832 appointments were allegedly secured on the basis of fake caste certificates. Of these, 276 had resulted in suspension or removal, 521 were entangled in litigations and disciplinary proceedings were pending in the remaining 1,035 cases. A total of 1,296 cases of jobs secured allegedly through fake caste certificates were under the Department of Financial Services.
As many as 157 such cases were in State Bank of India, 135 in Central Bank of India, 112 in Indian Overseas Bank, 103 in Syndicate Bank, and 41 each in New India Assurance and United India Assurance.
“When an appointing authority comes to know that an employee had submitted a false/fake caste certificate, it has to initiate action to remove or dismiss such an employee from service as per the provisions of relevant service rules,” the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in a directive.
It has been decided to collect information from all departments about appointments made on the basis of fake or false caste certificates and the follow up action taken thereon, it said. “Therefore, all the Ministries/Departments are requested to collect information from all organisations under their administrative control about the cases where the candidates got/alleged to have got appointment against vacancies reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes on the basis of false/fake caste certificate and send a consolidated report in this regard,” the directive said.