Original Certificate withholding is a common practice in India. During your education, were you asked to deposit your original education certificates until you finish off the course at your college? Did you ever wonder if there is something unfair or shady about it?
The Girl Who Questioned the System: PCT’s struggle to get a girl her Original Certificates
She was enrolled in a homeopathy college. During the lockdown, she prepared hard and got a good rank in an entrance exam and didn’t want to miss that opportunity. But the college people were not willing to return her certificates until she paid up for all 5.5 years.
As an NGO working in the field of education, we work with lots of students. But it was not until Tara* approached us seeking support to get her original certificates back that we knew what is legal and what isn’t!
One of our staff members immediately got busy inspecting. He found an explicit UGC Notification stating that colleges should not retain original documents of students. They can only retain self-attested Xerox copies. After sending the certificates to the government for verification, the original certificates must be returned.
Doesn’t this make Original Certificate withholding illegal? To read the UGC Notification, issued in October 2018: Click here.
Thinking that we won the battle, that since we were legally correct- it would be a cakewalk from there to get the certificates back, we forged ahead.
PCT spoke to the college officials on behalf of Tara: nothing worked out. We wrote a complaint letter to the university under which the college is running: no improvement.
We complained directly to the authorities above them: finally, they returned Tara her certificates, somewhat reluctantly.
We successfully got Tara her certificates back, but the win also opened our eyes to the injustices of an unequal society. Despite all the connections, power, and people’s support as a prominent organization, it took us months to win this despite being legally correct.
We could have easily failed if the authorities didn’t pay heed. We thought of how difficult it would be for an ordinary person to fight a battle like this and win. So we decided to spread awareness on how Original Certificate Withholding is incorrect so that no one falls prey to this.
As this issue was going on, we wrote an article about Telugu’s original certificate withholding scams and posted it on our social media handles. The response was tremendous! We started hearing so many stories of victims of original certificate withholding and whose original certificates were never returned by their colleges.
How Original Certificate Withholding affected the life of Navya: The story of Missing Original Certificates
After writing exams, Navya* received her Intermediate marks list but didn’t get her X Class Original Marks List back.
When asked, the college administration tried to shoo her away saying that, students never get their X Class Original Marks Lists back. They tried to convince her that government retains these certificates with them, that she should not ask them for the certificates.
Navya’s father passed away when she was 11. She and her grandmother spent a good portion of their time and money moving back and forth in autos to get her certificates back: nobody cared.
They even went to the college with the counselor of their constituency to talk with the principal: nothing worked out. With their energies and money getting slowly exhausted, they stopped.
Ineligible to apply for jobs or to continue education without an X class certificate, she stayed home.
Four years passed. Now, she takes small jobs where they allow her to work without showing the original certificates. And the college still exists to this day- not realizing how they damaged the future of a child with their lack of responsibility.
The Many Stories of Original Certificate Withholding
“I wanted to quit education as my family couldn’t afford to continue education due to unavoidable circumstances. But the college administration asked us to pay for the rest of the course and withheld my original certificates.”
“My college lost my certificates in an accident and never returned them. I could not do anything about it!”
The stories are many, but none of the students or parents seemed to know that withholding a student’s original certificates was illegal. We saw the ground reality of how the practice of retaining original certificates ruined the lives of many. Some colleges even use these certificates as a way to control the students.
As much as we respect the educational institutions for providing quality education to their wards, they need to understand that those certificates are the only legal proof of a student’s decade-long effort in education. They are not mere papers. They hold lives. Retaining original certificates until the students finish their education in those institutions is liable for legal action.
Institutions will be stripped of their grants and university status if a legal complaint against them for doing such practices. It applies to all colleges under sections 2(f) & 3 of the UGC act.
How students can protect their rights regarding Original Certificates:
- Take high-resolution scanned images of their certificates before submitting them for verification.
- Take an acknowledgment receipt from the college as proof that they submitted their certificates for verification.
- Follow up and take their certificates back after verification.
- Question strongly if your certificates are being retained post verification.
Join the Fight Against Original Certificate Withholding:
You can help thousands of students and victims by:
- By spreading and growing collective awareness that retaining original certificates is illegal among student groups, parents, and college administrations (Fun Fact: Your college authorities probably know already!)
- Write appeals to the following bodies about the original certificate mishandlings and request them to stop physical verification of documents and switch to digital alternatives like barcode system verifications.
- AP Higher Education Commission
- AP CMO Office
- Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Regulatory & Monitoring Commission (APHER&MC)
- Secretary to the CM of Andhra Pradesh
- Commissionerate of Collegiate Education
- APSCH
- UGC, New Delhi
If you are a victim of such practices or know someone who is, you can mail us at: pctsethu@gmail.com for queries regarding this.
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