New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that anyone who have held government jobs or got admissions under reserved category by using forged caste certificates will not remain valid in the eyes of the law.
The court said that “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.”
A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud did not concur with the findings of the Bombay High Court that if a person continues in service for a long period of time and the certificate is found to be fake at a later stage then, he or she may be allowed to continue in the service.
The verdict came on a batch of petitions including the one filed by the Maharashtra government against the Bombay High Court judgement. The Supreme Court, however, said that the findings of its verdict would not be made applicable with retrospective effect and would be applied now onward.
Last month, the Centre said employees who got jobs using forged scheduled or backward caste certificates will be dismissed, reported in media reports.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha,Minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh said in March that as many as 1,832 appointments were allegedly secured on the basis of fake caste certificates. Of these cases, 276 resulted in suspension or removal, 521 were entangled in litigations, and disciplinary proceedings were pending in the remaining 1,035 cases, he said.
