Mere days after probationary Indian Administrative (IAS) Officer Pooja Khedkar was accused of presenting a false Other Backward Caste (OBC) (non-creamy layer) and disabilities certificate to secure her position, several other Civil Servants have been accused of doing the same.
The most prominent of them is former IAS officer Abhishek Singh, a part of the 2011 batch. Singh, who quit the IAS in September 2023 to pursue a career in acting, reportedly claimed to have a locomotor disorder to avail affirmative action and concessions in the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) category. The validity of his selection as a PwD candidate raised eyebrows when his dance and gym videos went viral on social media.
Defending himself, the former IAS officer claimed that he was being “targeted for his pro-reservation stance”.
However, the can of worms had already been ripped open, and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirants, experts, and netizens alike began doubting the efficiency of the UPSC in preventing the misuse of affirmative action, particularly in the PwD, OBC, and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quotas, and started alleging that there were many such cases of misuse.
While these accusations are largely unsubstantiated, it has been pointed out that a few Civil Servants named have since allegedly made their social media accounts private, thus eliminating any scope for any benefit of the doubt.
These accusations against serving Civil Servants beg the question — how prevalent is the problem of false certificates in India? When the Supreme Court declared seeking reservations through fake certificates as void and fraud against the Constitution in 2017, why did these cases go unchecked?
Deep-rooted corruption, arbitrary process
According to legal experts and insiders of the UPSC, the reason for this proliferation of dubious certificates is the widespread corruption in the Indian Bureaucracy.
“If you are rich and powerful, it is very easy to obtain a false disability or caste certificate. You can bribe the tehsildar’s office or the medical board members that issue them,” says Dr M Balaguruswamy, educator, former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University and former member of the UPSC.
He further says that during his time as VC, he saw several students from so-called forward castes such as Brahmins and Reddys getting admission through reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and OBCs by submitting false certificates.
“I tried to have their admissions cancelled, but these students moved to the Madras High Court, which struck down my orders,” he says.
“Even in the UPSC, there was a case where an officer I knew on a personal basis availed ST reservations to get into IAS by producing a false certificate. When we tried to take this up with the District Magistrate, he refused to take action against her. Today, she is in the position of a Chief Secretary,” narrates Balaguruswamy.
He adds that in most of these cases, the candidates’ parents are Civil Servants or other affluent people themselves, who are willing to go to any lengths to ensure that their children become Civil Servants too.
“Nobody wants to join the Civil Services because they want to serve the public. They are in it for the power and privilege. That’s why they won’t think twice before employing dubious means,” he says.
Echoing this, Mudit Gupta, UPSC Coach also claims that fake OBC and EWS certificates were used by Indian Police Services (IPS) and Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officers to get into the IAS.
“On what basis is a former IPS officer economically backward? They draw a monthly salary of about Rs 72,000 including allowances and perks, which adds to over 8 lakhs per annum — which is just above the EWS income criteria,” he explains.
Apart from corruption, a lack of clarity on and proper implementation of affirmative action policies is also leading people to misuse them.
“There are no standardised guidelines for caste classification and the issue of caste certificates,” says Atish Mathur, lawyer and Civil Service Examination (CSE) teacher.
Elaborating on this, he says that while caste certificates are usually issued by the District Tehsildar, the Naib Tehsildar issues them in a few districts. However, the UPSC does not recognise the latter as they do not bear the stamp and signature of the Tehsildar, he adds.
As for the OBC and EWS quotas, he says that it is easy to manipulate income declaration statements and obtain dubious income certificates. “In mock interviews, I have personally encountered many candidates whose income statements did not match the income they mentioned in their Detailed Application Form (DAF),” he recounts.
These hurdles and loopholes make bribery and corruption easy, he adds.
Genuine candidates suffer
These malpractices will only serve as a blow to candidates deserving of affirmative action, believe commentators.
According to Mudit Gupta, reservations exist to uplift the depressed and marginalised sections of our society, that is. those who are physically, socially, and economically disadvantaged.
He adds, “When undeserving candidates misuse the reservation policy out of selfishness, someone who would genuinely benefit from affirmative action would be deprived of the opportunity. The depressed classes will continue to stay depressed.”
Moreover, vulnerable communities, such as people with disabilities would have it worse than they currently do due to such alleged scams.
“If it is proven that people are reproducing false PwD certificates to avail concessions, an entire community will have to suffer because of their crookedness, as well as that of the medical board members who issued them the certificates,” says Rajiv Ranjan a Chennai-based disability rights activist.
He adds that sometimes, due to red tape, systemic apathy and corruption, people with disabilities themselves use illegal means to obtain PwD certificates, as the legal route does not work in their favour. BehanBox, for instance, reports that according to a 2018 National Sample Survey, over 71 per cent of people with disabilities do not possess disability certificates.
According to Atish Mathur, this red tape exists in obtaining caste and income certificates legally across all categories.
“What these people who produce fake certificates don't realise is that their actions are affecting several innocent persons with disabilities. These people have to remember that the entire community of persons with disabilities is tarnished, and deprived of opportunities – which are already next to non-existent,” says Rajiv Ranjan.
UPSC’s role?
All these allegations and the discourse around them begs one question — how did the UPSC allow such malpractices to occur on such a large scale, and why didn’t the Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) or the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy Of Administration (LBSNAA) verify the authenticity of these certificates?
According to Balaguruswamy, such verifications fall beyond the ambit of the UPSC’s activities, and the commission does not concern itself with verifying each applicant’s certificates.
“The UPSC only provides reservations as per the certificates during the CSE. If it concerns itself with matters of authenticity and verification, it cannot do anything else,” he says.
He further adds that the UPSC alone should not be blamed for Civil Servants who obtained these certificates from elsewhere, that is, the Tehsildar’s office.
However, a few experts disagree, and opine that the UPSC, DoPT, and LBSNAA bear responsibility in the matter.
“The question is about the misuse of the system, and how the UPSC has seemingly overlooked it,” says Mudit Gupta.
Adding to this, Atish Mathur says, that the UPSC has always maintained that they cannot verify the certificates of all 50,000 candidates who apply for the CSE. However, he adds, of these candidates, only 10 thousand get selected for the Main exam, and then six thousand candidates get selected for the interview.
“Verifying the certificates of 10 thousand candidates before the Main exam, or six thousand candidates before the interview cannot be all that difficult for the DoPT,” he adds.
Adding to this, Atish Mathur says, that the UPSC has always maintained that they cannot verify the certificates of all 50 thousand candidates who apply for the CSE. However, he adds, of these candidates, only 10 thousand get selected for the Main exam, and then six thousand candidates get selected for the interview. “Verifying the certificates of 10 thousand candidates before the Main exam, or six thousand candidates before the interview cannot be all that difficult for the DoPT,” he adds.
He further suggests that there be a dedicated Exam Intelligence Agency tasked with the responsibility of verifying the records and certificates of each candidate who appears for prestigious examinations like the UPSC and investigating exam-related scams.
“If we can have a dedicated agency under the Central Government for conducting exams, why can’t we have an agency to make sure that it happens fairly and transparently?” he asks.
