The Department of Collegiate Education has issued notice to a candidate who attempted to secure guest lecturer positions in a Government First Grade Colleges by submitting applications under two different names and in two different categories, but with the same Aadhaar number, email address, phone number etc.

While under one application he claimed to meet the University Grant Commission (UGC) eligibility criteria such as National Eligibility Test (NET) and Ph.D., he also applied under non-UGC criteria under another name. He participated in the selection process via Webex login (in-camera) by posing as a UGC-qualified candidate. After securing the guest lecturer position, he did not report to the college, and instead sought that the department assign him a post under the non-UGC cadre under a different name.

The Commissioner has disqualified the candidate and issued a notice seeking reply within seven days. The department is also investigating other such possible duplications.

The candidate in question once appliced for the post, called for the 2026-27 academic year, as “Chandrappa”, stating he did not possess UGC qualifications. Using the same mobile phone number, Aadhaar number, and e-mail address, another application for the post was submitted under the name “Ravi”, claiming to have UGC-mandated qualifications. As per rules, if UGC-qualified candidates are unavailable for a post, non-UGC candidates are considered for the same.

The candidate participated in the online counseling session on August 1, 2026, for the selection of UGC-qualified guest lecturer post in Geography, via Webex login, got selected for the post at the Government First Grade College in Dharwad. This proceeding was captured in the Webex videorecording.

But he did not report at the college, and instead, sought to be selected for the same post under non-UGC category as “Chandrappa” later.

A complaint in this regard was lodged with the department by another guest lecturer. Subsequently, when officials examined the candidate’s documents and the Webex videorecording, the alleged impersonation came to light.

Speaking to Gopalakrishna H.N., Commissioner, Department of Collegiate Education, said the candidate had not reported to duty fearing exposure during document verification. “Consequently, as the post remained vacant, he requested the department to consider the application he had submitted under his alias for the non-UGC-qualified category to fill that vacancy,” he explained.

“To prevent such occurrences in the future, the online application system will be modified and made more robust to block duplicate applications,” he stated.