At least 24 candidates who applied for the post of assistant professor in Karnataka government colleges had dreamt of landing the job with fake PhD or National Eligibility Test (NET) certificates owing to inadequate qualifications for the profile. But the state education department officials called their bluff.
Nearly 2,000 candidates had applied for the recruitment examination that was conducted by Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).
Subsequently, a complaint lodged with the Department of Collegiate Education (DCE) in Karnataka has revealed that of the 60 PhD certificates submitted, 24 were fake. The rise in the number of candidates opting for this practice while enrolling for government teaching jobs has raised an alarm.
Some of the fake degrees were reportedly awarded by Bundelkhand University, Jhansi; Banaras Hindu University and Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith in Varanasi and the Monad University in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh.
DCE officials who visited these universities to check the authenticity of the certificates found that there were no record in the University database of the candidates who had submitted these documents, according to a Times of India report.
Officials also said there were some universities which were derecognised, but continued to grant PhD certificates to candidates. To substantiate this, they cited the example of a university in Rajasthan which was still providing degree certificated to candidates from Karnataka. Another such varsity from Meghalaya had given away 400 certificates in one year.
No FIR yet
The education department is yet to an FIR against the candidates who produced fake certificates.
The principal secretary of department of higher education, Jawaid Akhtar, has said that verification of documents was still underway and will take a call on what action had to be taken against them.
African varsity issues Kannada doctorate to Indian student
Amongst the stack of fake documents, the education department came across a PhD certificate issued by a South African University.
The varsity awarded an Indian student a Kannada doctorate.
Another document was a NET certificate from University Grants Commission (UGC).
