The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption to ensure that the investigation into ‘fake degree certificates to candidates’ issued by Madurai Kamaraj University reaches its logical end, and also to investigate the issue of fake and fraudulent degree certificates issued by other universities.A Division Bench of Justices P. Velmurugan and B. Pugalendhi directed the DVAC to also initiate criminal prosecution against the candidates and officials involved without any further delay.The DVAC should probe the manner in which the study centres of universities were functioning and whether they were facilitating such fraudulent activities. The universities involved were directed to strictly cooperate with the investigation and take steps to cancel the ‘contentious degrees’.The DVAC should undertake criminal prosecution under Section 238 of the BNS for causing evidence to disappear and screening offenders from legal punishment, if the university officials wantonly failed to provide any required documents, the court said.It said the investigation into the issue of fake degree certificates was not conducted in a proper manner till the intervention of the court, and the universities involved had also stalled the investigation by not providing the required documents. There was a clear case of contempt of the court directions.Since the investigation was still under way and the TNPSC had taken steps to cancel the provisional selection of candidates who had joined different services by producing fake degree certificates, the court was not inclined to impose punishment on any officials involved, the court said.The court was hearing the contempt petition filed by advocate G. Sakthi Rao of Madurai. The court said the contempt proceeding had provided a harsh realisation to the court that money power and influence had spoiled every corner of society and even educational institutions had become rotten to the core. If this was the manner in which degrees were conferred and such fraud was openly practised, then the faith of the common man in the system would completely collapse, it said.It had done all it could to bring out the truth regarding the malpractices, and keeping the contempt petition pending any longer would not be of any use, the court said and closed the contempt proceedings for the present with the directions. Published - June 10, 2026 08:49 pm IST