Private varsity under scanner for issuing 168 fake degrees

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, March 22

As many as 168 complaints of fake degrees have been received by the HP Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission, putting a question mark over the quality of education being imparted by a private university in Solan district.

These complaints were forwarded by the Department of Higher Education to the commission for the verification of these degrees. A majority of the degrees (PhD, pharmacy, BSc, MSc and BA) pertain to Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Those, who got the degrees, are working in public and private sectors.

The commission has been issuing notices to the private university since 2017 to either own up these degrees if they had been issued by them or file an FIR against such individuals as these degrees used the university logo and same paper.

Commission chairman Dr KK Katoch said the university had been directed to submit action-taken report in 168 cases of fake degrees received by them and these cases had also been forwarded to the police for inquiry. He said they would take appropriate action in the case after getting the police report. A similar case has come to the fore in Kangra district.

Sources said in one case, a person, who had obtained a PhD degree from this private university, was working as a Vice-Chancellor of a university in Maharashtra, while in another case, a woman had obtained the job of an Assistant Public Relations Officer in Haryana on the basis of this university degrees. As many as three cases pertain to PhD degrees.

With the university failing to either own up the degrees or registering FIRs, barring one case, the working of this private university has come under the scanner. The sources said the university had failed to submit a complete report pertaining to all 168 cases and only a scattered report had been submitted.

Solan Additional SP Shiv Kumar Sharma said only one FIR of a fake degree had been registered against a person by a private university in Solan in January this year.

Action-taken report sought

• The HP Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission has been issuing notices to the  private university  since  2017 to either own up these degrees if they had been issued by them or file an FIR against such individuals as these  degrees used the university logo and same paper.  
• Commission chairman Dr KK Katoch has aksed the university to submit  action-taken report in 168 cases of fake degrees received by them. 
• A similar case has come to the fore in Kangra district. 
• Sources said in one case, a person, who had obtained a PhD degree from  this private university,  was working as a Vice-Chancellor of a  university in Maharashtra, while in another case, a woman had obtained  the job of an Assistant Public Relations Officer in Haryana  on the  basis of this university degrees.