JAGATSINGHPUR: A lecturer in the Commerce department of Balikuda College was dismissed from service on Monday for reportedly securing his job by submitting a fake M.Com certificate.
College authorities said Santosh Kumar Satpathy was engaged as a lecturer in the Commerce department since 2018. At the time of his appointment, he had produced an M.Com certificate claimed to be issued by an university in Sikkim in 2014.
Earlier, a complaint was raised alleging that the certificate was fake, but it was ignored. Subsequently, in August 2025, the complainant filed a petition in the chief minister’s Jana Sunani portal, seeking an inquiry into the matter.
Acting on the direction of the Chief Minister’s Office, the district administration ordered a probe. The sub-collector of Jagatsinghpur, who is also the president of the Balikuda college management committee, formed a fact-finding team to verify the authenticity of the certificate.
The inquiry confirmed that the M.Com certificate produced by Satpathy was fake. Based on the report, sub-collector Prasant Kumar Tarai instructed the college principal to terminate the lecturer’s services and initiate steps for recovery of the salary he had drawn since his appointment.
Principal of Balikuda College, Krushna Prasad Mohanty, said, “Satpathy was appointed as a lecturer by the college management committee. Following the directive of the sub-collector, I have dismissed the lecturer from service for producing fake certificate.”