Allahabad High Court orders statewide verification of UP teachers' credentials amid fraud claims

On October 16, the Allahabad High Court directed the Special Task Force to verify the appointment letters and educational credentials of every teacher serving in Uttar Pradesh government basic schools for classes I to VIII. Justice Vinod Diwakar’s bench required teachers to provide legible copies of their appointment letters and qualifications—including High School, Intermediate, graduation, B.Ed./B.T.C., and TET/CTET—to the Basic Shiksha Adhikari within a week of notification.

The order stems from a writ filed by Kusumlata, who was suspended in 2021 after an inquiry found she had used forged documents belonging to another teacher, Kusumlata Srivastava. The STF investigation revealed that dozens of teachers obtained jobs using falsified papers, with some cases involving ten or more individuals sharing a single set of documents. The court also mandated notarized affidavits disclosing any immediate relatives holding senior posts in the Uttar Pradesh Education Department, and instructed BSAs to have headmasters compile detailed Excel sheets of each teacher’s data for the STF.

The Director of Education and the Additional Director General of Police, STF, will supervise the verification, and any negligence by officials may result in personal accountability. The matter is slated for further hearing on November 4.