New Delhi: With an aim of eliminating scope
of fake certification, government has prepared a bill which
envisages creation of a database of academic degrees and
provides for Rs 10 crore penalty or 10-year jail term in case
of wrong endorsement by officials of the databank.
According to the draft National Academic Depository (NAD)
Act 2010, data of all academic certificates issued by
universities and central and state school boards will be
maintained in electronic form.
The National Academic Depository, to be set up for the
purpose, will adopt adequate system of safeguards for storage,
access and retrieval of records while ensuring its
confidentiality, fidelity and authenticity.
However, if there is any offence with regard to wrong
certification by the agency, the NAD's promoter, director,
secretary or other officer shall be liable to be punished with
imprisonment up to 10 years or fine up to Rs 10 crore or both,
the draft bill says.
The idea is to checked forged certificate and have
foolproof verification process for the employers.
Under this initiative, the school boards, universities
and certificate issuing institutions can have direct linkages
to the depository. The certificates could be stored in a DMAT
format.
Any person, company or institution requiring a copy of
an academic award shall have the facility of online access or
may obtain physical copy of the authenticated academic award
from the NAD.
The draft law says that if any academic institution
fails to discharge its duty or contravenes the provisions of
the act will be liable for penalty up to Rs five lakh.
For offences like hacking into the national database,
the offenders will be punishable under the provisions of the
IT Act, 2000.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, June 15, 2010, 23:11