Chhattisgarh High Court rejects railway loco pilot's plea in fake ITI mark sheet case
A division bench upheld the tribunal's refusal to interfere with the railways' move to enhance a penalty on a goods-train loco pilot accused of joining service with a forged ITI electrician mark sheet.
The Chhattisgarh High Court has dismissed a petition by a goods-train loco pilot of South East Central Railway's Bilaspur division who is accused of securing his job with a forged Industrial Training Institute (ITI) mark sheet, Amar Ujala and NPG News reported on 10 October 2026.
A division bench of Justices P.P. Sahu and Sachin Singh Rajput upheld an earlier order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had declined to grant the employee relief.
What the railways found
According to both reports, a departmental inquiry examined the ITI mark sheet in the electrician trade that the employee had submitted at recruitment. The principal of the institute named on the document stated that he had never trained there and that the institute had not issued the mark sheet.
On 1 May 2019, the railway administration imposed a five-year pay cut. A show-cause notice to enhance the penalty was issued by the Divisional Railway Manager on 29 June 2021 and later withdrawn. The General Manager issued a fresh notice on 20 October 2021, and a criminal case was also registered against the employee, according to the reports.
The time-limit argument
The employee argued that the move to enhance the penalty was barred by the six-month limit in the Railway Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1968. NPG News reports that the bench held that starting revision proceedings roughly two years after the original penalty was not an unreasonable delay in the circumstances of this case. The court found the railways' action justified and dismissed the petition.
Neither report gives details of the progress of the criminal case. The employee has not been convicted of any offence, and the allegation of forgery remains to be decided in those proceedings.
Lessons for employers
The case turned on a simple check: asking the issuing institute whether the document was genuine. Public employers handling technical appointments can build such confirmation into recruitment, particularly for trade certificates, which are often accepted on paper without direct verification.
This News Desk report summarises information published by the sources above, written in our own words. Persons named in criminal matters are accused, not convicted, unless a court has ruled otherwise. To report an error, use our contact page.
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