The Madras High Court has ordered a police inquiry against a person who claimed to be a law graduate on the basis of a fabricated law degree supposedly issued by Bharathidasan University in 2002. The degree certificate read that he had been conferred a bachelor’s degree in law on successful completion of history examination.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Vaidyanathan and A.D. Jagadish Chandira also found that the Tamil text in the certificate stated he had passed the examination in first class whereas the English text stated that he had secured second class. Suspecting its genuineness, the judges referred the certificate to Bharathidasan University.
The varsity, in turn, replied that the certificate was not genuine and that it was not issued by the university. The judges said, when they confronted the individual, S. Babu of Anna Nagar in Chennai with the reply, “instead of repenting for his act, he had the audacity to claim that he had studied at the Government Law College in Tiruchi.”
Further, the person submitted a handwritten affidavit in broken English claiming to have completed his law course. Surprised over his acts, the judges pointed out that Bharathidasan University could not have issued the degree in 2002 because only Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University alone had been issuing law degrees in Tamil Nadu since 1997.
The judges directed the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police to depute an officer in the rank of Assistant Commissioner in the Central Crime Branch to register a case against the individual and conduct a thorough investigation including the details regarding his schooling and find out whether he had deceived anyone by claiming to be a lawyer.
Since complaints of fraudulent activities using fake certificates and fabricated appointment orders were on the rise, the judges directed the police to publish the photographs of Babu in English as well as Tamil dailies to find out whether any person had been cheated by him under the pretext of being a qualified advocate.
The Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry was also directed to conduct a parallel inquiry and submit a report to the court on August 10. The orders were passed on a habeas corpus petition filed by a woman alleging that Babu, who claimed to be a lawyer, had kept her adopted son in illegal custody at the instance of another woman who wanted to grab his properties.
