In a letter addressed to all academic institutions, the University Grant Commission (UGC) has requested that they accept degree, mark sheets and other documents that are available in issued documents in DigiLocker account as valid documents.
"All academic institutions are requested to accept Degree, Mark-sheets and other documents available in issued documents in DigiLocker account as valid documents to enhance the reach of the National Academic Depository programme", stated the letter by Prof Rajnish Jain, Secretary and CVO, UGC, as per a report in ANI.
"As you are aware, NAD is an online storehouse of academic awards (Degrees, Mark-Sheets, etc.) lodged by the academic institutions in a digital format. It facilitates students to get authentic documents/certificates in digital format directly from their original issuers anytime, anywhere without any physical interference", informed the letter and went on to add that UGC is the authorised body, as designated by the Ministry of Education (MoE), to implement NAD as a permanent scheme sans levying charges in co-operation with the DigiLocker as a single depository of NAD.
The letter went on to state that it is possible for academic institutions to register themselves and then, upload academic awards on NAD via the DigiLocker NAD portal. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India's DigiLocker platform even provides the facility to pull degree, mark sheets and other documents of a student into the section of issued documents in an electronic form. This is possible once they are uploaded on the platform.
"NAD platform by the original issuer. These electronic records available on DigiLocker platform are valid documents as per the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000," UGC added.