SC Affirms Removal Of Civil Servant Who Forged Caste Certificate To Get Job [Read Judgment]

The Supreme Court recently affirmed the removal from service of a person who was working as ‘farash’ in the office of the Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Central Division, Cuttack, on the basis that he used a forged caste certificate to procure employment.

The civil servant was removed from service after his caste certificate was directed to be cancelled by the state-level scrutiny committee, after it found that he did not belong to the Kandha tribe.

It was on the basis of this caste certificate filed by him in the Employment Exchange that he got appointed as a farash in the office of the second respondent.

He challenged his removal before the administrative tribunal, which in his favour observed that since he was not appointed in a post reserved for Scheduled Tribes and that there was no material to show that he forged the caste certificate for the purpose of procuring employment, he could not be dismissed. The high court affirmed this finding of the tribunal.

On appeal by the state, the Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao observed that his name would not have been sponsored, but for the certificate which showed that he belongs to the Scheduled Tribe community.

The bench also observed that the tribunal had committed a serious error in recording a finding that there is no evidence to show that the respondent has obtained the certificate only to procure employment.

“It is clear from the facts that he fraudulently obtained a certificate showing that he belongs to Schedule Tribes community which stands cancelled by the order passed by the State level scrutiny committee,” the bench said, affirming his removal from service.

It also quoted Justice Denning in Lazarus Estates, Ltd. v. Beasley (1956) 1 All E.R. 341, 345 wherein he observed that “no Court will allow a person to keep an advantage which he has obtained by fraud. [...] Fraud unravels everything. The Court is careful not to find fraud unless it is distinctly pleaded and proved; but once it is proved it vitiates judgments, contracts and all transactions whatsoever”.