On Friday, the Malla Reddy College of Engineering (MRCE) in Kompally, Hyderabad, was blacklisted by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for five years. The NAAC allegedly found several digitally forged certificates submitted for accreditation by the college in their Self Study Report (SSR) sent to the Council last December. The MRCE is part of the Malla Reddy group of institutions owned by the Telangana Minister for Labour and TRS leader, Ch Malla Reddy.
The college was informed about the denial of approval on December 24 through a letter. The NAAC alleged that the certificates submitted by the college in 2019 to the Council were digitally forged. These documents were supposedly certificates issued by BHEL, Yash Technologies and Airtel to students for internship, on the job training and sharing of research facilities.
The NAAC, in the letter, said, “While processing the SSR dated December 13, 2019, submitted by your institution for re-assessment, the following discrepancies were noticed. The certificates purported to have been given by BHEL, Yash Technologies and Airtel appear to be fabricated in layer, especially with the seal, signature and letterhead aspects. The digital expertise opinion obtained by us on the same also confirmed the possibility of digital fabrications.”
The NAAC informed the college that the opinions of experts were sought to ascertain the possibility of digital fabrication, reported The New Indian Express. The paper quoted a UGC official saying that the existing students of the college will not be impacted by the loss of accreditation, and that the move will only impact new admissions.
The college was earlier accredited by the NAAC in 2018 with B++ grade with validity until 2023. However, the NAAC issued a show-cause notice to the college in November 2019 and carried out a reassessment.
The decision to blacklist the college was taken on November 20 by an Executive Committee. NAAC is an autonomous institution of the University Grants Commission (UGC), which assesses and accredits higher education institutions in the country.