Frame credential verification regime: High Court to DHBVN

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Managing Director, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) to formulate and notify mandatory guidelines ensuring verification of employees’ educational and technical credentials within six months of recruitment.

Justice Harpreet Singh Brar issued the direction after holding that DHBVN’s six-year delay in detecting unrecognised or forged qualifications was “a lapse that simply cannot be condoned”.

He made it clear that public employment “must remain sacrosanct, transparent and free from arbitrariness”, while observing that every wrongful appointment “not only pollutes the process but also deprives a deserving candidate of the dignity and stability attached to State service”.

The High Court was dealing with a batch of petitions where employees challenged suspension or termination after DHBVN discovered—years into service—that their certificates were either forged, fabricated, or issued by institutions not recognised by the Haryana Industrial Training Directorate.

The court ruled that employment obtained on the basis of fraud or through certificates from unrecognised institutions was void ab initio, eliminating any protection under the regulations. “When employment itself has been secured by playing fraud on the hiring authority, the delay in discovery of the charade cannot be used as a defence,” the court said.

Justice Brar also rejected the contention that the absence of mens rea should protect the petitioners. The court clarified that “mens rea is relevant only to criminal proceedings, and the absence thereof cannot shield the petitioners from civil consequences” arising from tainted appointments.