HC directs DHBVN to frame 6-month credential-verification regime, admonishes corporation for laxity

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”.

Justice Brar 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.

Holding the law on the point to be crystal clear, Justice Brar 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,” Justice Brar asserted, adding that “fraud vitiates all”.

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.

At the same time, Justice Brar held the power utility answerable for its own failures. Emphasising the sanctity of public employment, the Bench observed: “Hiring an ineligible candidate also means depriving a deserving candidate of the opportunity to be in service of the State…, the court observed”.

The Bench added it found it appropriate to direct the Managing Director, DHBVN, “to formulate guidelines and issue instructions for verification of credentials of its employees within six months of their recruitment.”

The court also directed that a compliance affidavit be filed within three months of receiving the order.

For candidates who subsequently obtained recognised qualifications after recruitment, Justice Brar clarified that such certificates would aid them only in future applications, not to validate a tainted appointment retrospectively.

All petitions were dismissed for lack of merit, with Justice Brar reiterating that both fraud and reliance on unrecognised institutions fundamentally vitiate the very foundation of public employment.