3,000 teachers with fake degrees resign in Bihar

Fearing government action over possession of fake educational degrees, as many as 3,000 primary teachers have resigned from service in Bihar. To prevent the teachers from facing any legal action in this matter, the Patna High Court had asked those possessing the fake certificates to quit on their own.
The High Court on July 28, however, refused any further pardon to those teachers who have failed to resign so far. The Court had made it clear that the teachers will have to face FIRs lodged against them and a permanent termination of services from government jobs, if they illegally continue with their jobs.
The High Court order came across the case while hearing a bunch of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by activists Ranjit Pandit and others. The state government, on the hearing, admitted to recruiting more than 3 lakh contract teachers without verifying their educational background.

The court, in return, asked the Director of State Vigilance to complete the verification of degrees and certificates of teachers recruited by the state government from 2006 till the present year.
The Vigilance Department has already started probing into the matter by giving the duty to eight DSPs and 38 inspectors.
The State Government has asked for a time period of three-four months to complete the task, which has resulted in the High Court allowing a time frame, under which action was not supposed to be taken against teachers who resign on their own.
The petitioner said he has collected documents as evidence through Right to Information queries to prove that thousands of teachers used forged degrees to get jobs.