The Telangana High Court on 28 October 2026 ordered the reinstatement of 35 junior lecturers whose appointments were cancelled after the state's Intermediate Education Department alleged that their postgraduate certificates were not genuine.

Justice K Sarath stayed the cancellation orders issued by the Director of Intermediate Education on 1 October and directed that the petitioners be taken back into service. The order is interim, and the court made clear that the department may still hold a departmental inquiry and act on its findings.

Background

The lecturers were among more than 3,000 contract junior lecturers whose services were regularised by the Telangana government in May 2023. The petitioners said they had submitted their postgraduate certificates along with letters from their universities confirming the qualifications were genuine, and that the department accepted these at the time.

The department later issued show-cause notices claiming the certificates were fake. According to the government, its officials visited the universities concerned and found no records for the petitioners. It argued that appointments were conditional on verification and that a job obtained on false certificates is void from the start.

What the court found

The court noted the contradiction between the earlier university letters confirming genuineness and later communications from the same universities questioning the certificates. It held that employees cannot be removed on such allegations without being given a chance to respond. The court also observed that the regional joint director, not the Director, was the competent authority for these appointments, and that the show-cause process had run through that office.

The ruling does not decide whether the certificates are genuine. That question remains open for any inquiry the department chooses to conduct. The matter follows a student organisation's recent demand for a probe into alleged fake postgraduate certificates in the regularisation process.

Lessons for verification

The case shows the risk of relying on a one-time letter of genuineness. Employers can ask universities to confirm qualifications directly, in writing, from the controller of examinations, with reference to enrolment and result records, and keep that correspondence on file. Where doubts arise later, a documented inquiry that gives the employee a hearing is more likely to withstand legal challenge.

Sources

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TelanganaHigh CourtJunior lecturersPG certificatesDue process

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