How to verify a degree certificate in India

To verify a degree certificate in India, take the candidate's written consent and a copy of the certificate, then confirm it with the university that issued it. You can write to its verification cell, use its portal, or scan the QR code if the certificate has one. Most universities charge a fee, typically Rs 1,000, and most that publish a timeline take between four and fifteen working days.

Why degree checks still matter

A degree is often the first filter for a role, and paper is easy to fake. Recent cases show the problem comes in more than one form.

• Institutions that cannot award degrees. The University Grants Commission lists 32 self-styled institutions as fake universities, as of February 2026. A certificate from one of them looks like any other degree.
• Real universities, sold degrees. In the Manav Bharti University case in Himachal Pradesh, degrees were allegedly sold for Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh each, and the Enforcement Directorate has attached property worth about Rs 200 crore in the case. Checking that the university is recognised would not have caught these.
• Forgery rackets aimed at job seekers. In April 2026, Delhi Police arrested seven people who ran a fictitious institute and sold back-dated degrees, migration certificates and marksheets to buyers who wanted them for jobs. In July 2026, Kanpur police seized 59 forged documents from a syndicate that had around 500 clients across more than two dozen states.

The lesson for HR teams is simple. Looking at the certificate is not a check. The only reliable answer comes from the record the university itself holds.

The routes that exist today

In October 2026 we reviewed the published verification process of all 1,460 universities and Institutes of National Importance on the UGC and Ministry of Education lists. Of these, 856 publish no working verification route. That usually means they answer letters and emails as they arrive, not that they refuse checks. The 604 that do publish a route break down like this.

Many universities offer more than one route: 173 of the 604 list two or more.

Writing to the verification cell

This is still the default. The request usually goes to the Controller of Examinations or the examination branch. Many universities want the request on company letterhead, a copy of the certificate and a signed authorisation from the candidate. Payment is by online gateway, bank transfer or demand draft, and 108 universities still take demand drafts. Replies often come by post. Where a university publishes nothing, write to the Controller of Examinations or the Registrar and ask for the fee and the process before you send documents.

University and third-party portals

Portals save you the letter, but they rarely save time. Across the published processes we read, 135 involve a login or registration and 79 an upload, yet only two describe any instant or automatic answer. In most cases a portal is a front door to the same manual desk: staff still check the register by hand and reply.

Government portals

Some universities point requesters to a government service. The most common in our review is eSanad, a Ministry of External Affairs service for document verification, attestation and apostille, used mainly when documents are going abroad. Universities are joining it in phases, so check that the university you need is on it.

QR codes on newer certificates

A small number of universities issue certificates with a QR code that opens the university's own record. Only 18 of the 604 make this their main route today. When you scan one, check three things. The link should open a domain that belongs to the university or the issuer it names. Every field on the screen should match the paper: name, programme, year, registration number and grade. And the record should say it is valid. A QR image on its own proves nothing, because it can be copied onto a forged sheet.

What it costs and how long it takes

Of the 1,460 institutions in our review, 449 publish a verification fee. Across the 441 that charge, the median is Rs 1,000 per candidate or document, and 65% charge between Rs 500 and Rs 1,999. Eight do it free. The median varies by type of institution.

Read the fee notice closely. Units differ: per candidate, per document or per set. GST and postage are often extra. 39 universities waive or cut the fee for government requesters, 21 price by years since passing, and 96 quote a separate rate for requests from abroad.

Turnaround is harder to plan for, because only 154 universities, about one in ten, publish it. Most of those that give a number quote between four and fifteen working days, often counted from the day they receive the fee and documents and excluding postal time. Nine describe an instant online lookup. For everyone else, start the check at the offer stage, not after joining.

What to ask the candidate for

Ask for everything at the offer stage, in one request:

• a copy of the degree certificate, or the provisional certificate if the degree has not been issued yet;
• the final or consolidated marksheet;
• the registration or enrolment number and the year of passing;
• the college name and, for an affiliated college, the university that awarded the degree;
• their name exactly as printed, with proof of any later change of name;
• a signed authorisation that names the university and lets it share the result with you.

Consent

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 sets the bar for consent. Under Section 6, consent must be "free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous" and limited to the data the stated purpose needs, and the person can withdraw it as easily as they gave it. The government notified the DPDP Rules in November 2025 with an 18-month phased timeline. In practice, take a separate consent for the education check, say which university you will contact and what you will share with it, collect only what the check needs, and keep a record of the consent with the case file. Your legal team should confirm how this fits your own policies.

Red flags

• The institution appears on the UGC list of fake universities, or you cannot find it on the UGC lists at all.
• The dates do not add up: a year of passing before the university or the course existed, or a course finished faster than its normal duration.
• Names, registration numbers or the programme title differ between the degree and the marksheets.
• Wrong signatory titles, a seal that does not match other certificates from the same university, or spelling mistakes in the university's own name.
• The candidate offers to get the verification letter themselves, or a "confirmation" arrives from a personal email address rather than a university domain.
• A QR code that opens a lookalike website, or a record that does not match the paper.
• The candidate delays or refuses the authorisation without a clear reason.

One red flag is not proof of fraud. It is a reason to ask the university directly and wait for its answer.

How digital certificates change the check

The slow part of every route above is the same: someone at the university has to find the record and reply. Certificates issued digitally remove that step for the employer.

When a university or college issues on Dygital.degree, each certificate is signed by the Registrar, the Controller of Examinations and the Vice-Chancellor, anchored on Hyperledger, and issued in the NAD standard format with a QR code. Scanning it checks the certificate against the university's own record. It is tamper-evident: any change to an issued certificate makes its QR check fail. It stays verifiable for as long as the issuer keeps it active.

Students are notified when their certificate is issued and fetch it into ADi Wallet for a fee shown before they pay. A candidate can then share it with you from their wallet, with their approval. If you run checks on Checkkbox, identity, education and EPFO/TDS employment checks close in under 15 minutes when the candidate's records are on the network. For degrees from before a university joined, requests reach the same university office through its verification inbox, and the university answers them there.

Some things do not change. You still need the candidate's consent, and you still need the routes above for universities that do not issue digitally yet. What changes is that, for every certificate issued this way, the answer comes from the university's record and not from the paper in front of you.

If your team verifies degrees every month and wants to see how a check runs from consent to report, book a demo and we will walk you through it with your own hiring flow.

Sources

1. University Grants Commission, "List of Fake Universities", as on February 2026
2. The Tribune, "ED attaches Rs 5.80 crore properties in Manav Bharti varsity fake degree case", January 2025
3. Careers360 (PTI), "Delhi fake degree racket busted, seven arrested", April 2026
4. ThePrint (PTI), "Kanpur police busts inter-state fake marksheet racket, 2 arrested", July 2026
5. TheRollNumber, review of the published degree verification process, fee and turnaround of 1,460 universities and Institutes of National Importance on the UGC and Ministry of Education lists, October 2026. Institution lists from the University Grants Commission.
6. Ministry of External Affairs, "e-Sanad: online document verification, attestation and apostille", accessed October 2026
7. Government of India, "The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (No. 22 of 2023)", August 2023
8. Press Information Bureau, "Government notifies DPDP Rules to empower citizens and protect privacy", November 2025