With degree & marksheet computerisation,forgery up 4-fold

Out of an average of 8,000 requests for verification of documents received annually at the PU Verification Branch,around 200-250 are reported to be forged. “Till the time there were hand-written traditional degrees and mark sheets,there were never so many instances of getting them forged. There were hardly around 40-50 such cases a year. But with the increase in number of candidates each year that resulted in phasing out of hand-written mark sheets and degrees,the cases of forged documents has increased manifold,” pointed out a senior official at the Verification Branch.

In the category of forged or bogus documents,the majority of these are either BA and BCom mark sheets or degrees. Some cases of MBA and BTech too are reported among these 200 forged documents.

Generally,candidates attach photocopy of their mark sheets for verification and in rare cases or in applications from government organisations original documents or degrees are attached by the candidates. At present,almost all the results are prepared through computers while last year the University initiated even computerised degrees. Nothing is written by hand,either on the computerised mark sheets or on the degrees.

“It may be the case that recently there has been an increase in the number of forged documents by candidates but the University has not left any chance to ensure it does not facilitate this. Computerisation of mark sheets and degrees was in consonance with the manifold increase in workload due to an annual enrollment of around 2.5 lakh candidates at the University,” said Controller of Examinations Prof A K Bhandari.

The Verification Branch receives applications from both foreign universities and government organisations including the police,education and other state departments. In addition to this,the Branch has started to witness similar applications even from private multinational companies,which generally outsource verification of their employees or prospective employees to private consultants.

Queries from Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Vigilance Department are also received by the University.