Bogus certificate holder can be sacked: CAT

NEW DELHI: A person who obtains a job by submitting a false caste certificate neither has the right to continue in service, nor he deserves sympathy even if he has put in long years in the work, the Central Administrative Tribunal has held.

"If a person gets appointment on a false caste certificate which is already cancelled by the authorities, then such a person has no right to continue in service. Such a person needs no sympathy or equity from the court on the ground that he has worked for long years," CAT Members S Pandey and M Chibber said.

The tribunal passed the order on a petition filed by Shiv Kumar, a teacher of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Aligarh challenging his termination from service by the disciplinary authority without affording him an opportunity to defend himself and overlooking 14 years of service rendered by him.

The authority refuted the plea by contending that despite being given various opportunities to defend his case, he did not avail of the same.

While dismissing the plea of Kumar, the tribunal said such conduct amounts to fraud and deserves no leniency from the court.

"When a person obtains appointment in government service on fake caste certificate, it amounts to a fraud on the entire reserved category as a whole because he deprives a genuine SC candidate from getting the appointment," it said.