Fake medical certificate to cost PU students dear

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

 Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, September 19 

Perturbed over the flood of medical certificates submitted at the end of semesters to tide over attendance shortage, Panjab University (PU) will now impose a fine of Rs 15,000 if a medical certificate is found to be fake. 

The new rules have been implemented from the current session. 

“Not just that, a student will be debarred from appearing in the current semester’s examination. In case the student has already appeared, his result will stand cancelled,” said Dr Devinder Dhawan, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), PU, who has helped in framing the new rules. 

In view of fake medical certificate, the student will also not get admission in the next semester though he could take readmission in the same semester, in which he submitted the forged medical certificate, next year. 

For a student of annual system of examination, fine is same for a fake certificate and he would be debarred from appearing in the exam. He couldn’t proceed further and could take readmission only in the same class for which he has submitted the fake certificate only after a gap of one academic session. 

New rules 

Students are debarred from submitting medical certificates at the end of semesters. They have to submit the medical certificate within five working days of joining the department. 

The department concerned will then send the same medical certificate to Chief Medical Officer of the PU within in three working days. 

“The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) will not entertain any request made directly by the student in this regard. Every request has to be sent through the department. The CMO will verify the authenticity of the medical certificate and send it back to the department with clear cut observations regarding the acceptance or rejection of the same within five working days,” say the rules. 

“We will return the medical certificate, if it is submitted beyond five days of a student joining the department,” said Dr Dhawan. 

The chairperson has to certify that the student neither attended any class nor participated in any cultural or extra-curricular activity at the department during the period for which the medical certificate is submitted. 

Rs 100 per day for late submission 

For late submission of medical certificate, a fine of Rs 100 per day with a maximum ceiling of Rs 2,000 will be imposed on a student. 

The student will be required to attach the receipt of payment of fine along with the medical certificate in the department concerned failing which his or her case for seeking condonation of attendance on medical grounds will not be processed. 

Fake medical certificates in past 

• A private hospital had been  issuing medical certificates to a student for severe depression for over three semesters. The doctors questioned why the patient was not being referred to a hospital like the PGIMER, Chandigarh, when the doctor concerned had not been able to treat it for over three semesters. 
• Five medical certificates of different students issued by a Sector 38 (West)-based doctor came under the scanner in the last session for prescribing different days for viral fever. In the first case, a seven-day medical certificate was issued while in the second case, it was for 20 days. For another student claiming to be suffering from viral fever, it was for 8 days and in fourth and fifth case, it was five days.