UPSC third topper lands in legal soup for producing ‘fake’ disability certificate

After securing the prestigious third rank in Civil Services Exam, 2016, GopalaKrishna Ronanki found himself in the midst of a legal dispute.

The Hyderabad high court on Tuesday issued notices to GopalaKrishna to prove that his disability certificate was genuine that was submitted by him to the Union Public Service Commission while appearing for the examination.

A petition filed by Muralikrishna, a Hyderabad-based advocate contented that GopalaKrishna, who belongs to OBC category, had sought concession in the main exam last year by providing a fake certificate stating that he has 45% disability. While the cut-off marks for qualifying for the Mains examination for OBC candidates was 110.66, Ronanki could get only 91.34. As such, he had not qualified for the Mains under the OBC quota but got through the Prelims by providing fake Performa for Physically Challenged (PH) Certificate.

Muralikrishna further pointed out that, all other candidates are allotted three hours time to write the exams, but those with 40 per cent disability are allotted an hour extra because of which he qualified the exams.

Gopalakrishna, who hails from a financially poor background in Andhra's Srikakulam district, said in a conversation with Mirror while all the points argued by Murali Krishna were true, he was indeed given a 45% disability certificate by the Andhra Pradesh government.

Hearing the submissions, the bench issued notices to the UPSC, Centre, AP government and Gopala Krishna for filing counter affidavits, and adjourned the hearing by three weeks.

According to Ronanki Kodanda Rao, brother of Gopala Krishna said that he had fallen down from a tree when he was in Class 10 in 2002 and fractured his right arm. Since, he was unable to right continously for more than half an hour, they approached the medial authorities who had issued a physically handicapped certificate with 59 per cent disability. After qualifying the UPSC exam, Gopalakrishna again underwent a medical examination at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi.

Gopalakrishna who is currently working as a secondary school teacher, had appeared for the civil exams thrice. Finally, he got through in the 2016 recruitment test with third rank. Gopalakrishna said he got through the civil services exam because of his hard work and determination.

OneIndia News