Police Verification for Government Jobs: What the Attestation Form Decides

After the result, the documents and the medical, one check remains before your appointment is final: the verification of your character and antecedents. You fill in an attestation form, the appointing authority sends it to the police of the places you have lived, and the report decides whether your appointment is confirmed. Most candidates have nothing to worry about here. The ones who lose a post at this stage usually lose it not for what they did, but for what they left off the form.

To see which recruitments are open to you, start from 10th pass or jobs for graduates. Where this stage sits among the others is set out in from notification to joining.

You Can Usually Join Before the Report Arrives

Police verification used to hold appointments up for months. The Department of Personnel and Training changed that in 2016: appointment letters "need not be withheld pending such verification". Instead, the appointing authority issues a provisional appointment letter once you have submitted the attestation form and a self-declaration that everything in it is correct.

The provisional letter carries a condition. In DoPT's words, if your character and antecedents are "found not verified, or in case any false information is given by the candidate in his self-declaration, the provisional appointment letter shall be cancelled forthwith". Once the report arrives and raises no objection to what you declared, the provisional appointment is confirmed.

The exception is sensitive posts. Where the appointing authority considers detailed prior verification necessary in the interest of security, the appointment is made only after verification.

How Long It Takes

DoPT's instructions set a timetable for the department, not for you:

• Verification "should be carried out within six months".
• If the report has not arrived by then, the appointing authority asks the state's Director General of Police for it within three months.
• If it is still outstanding, the Union Home Ministry is asked to obtain it.

So a delay in your report is not a sign that anything is wrong — and on a provisional appointment you are already working while it runs.

What the Attestation Form Asks

The central government's attestation form asks, for each, a plain yes or no:

For any "yes", you give full particulars. The form opens with a warning: furnishing false information or suppressing any factual information "would be disqualification, and is likely to render the candidate unfit for employment under the government". It adds two things candidates miss:

• Events after you submit count too. If you are detained, arrested, prosecuted, fined, convicted, debarred — or acquitted — after submitting the form, you must report it immediately, "failing which it will be deemed to be a suppression of factual information".
• There is no time limit. If suppression comes to notice "at any time during the service", the services are liable to be terminated.

What Happens If Something Was Left Out

DoPT's instructions are blunt: if information in the self-declaration proves incorrect, the appointment letter is cancelled, the candidate "shall be rendered unfit for any Government employment", and legal action may follow.

The Supreme Court has set out how employers must use that power. In Avtar Singh v. Union of India (2016), a three-judge bench held that suppression does not automatically end a selection, and laid down guidelines including:

• The employer has discretion, and may take notice of the special circumstances of a case.
• A trivial matter may be condoned. The Court's example was a conviction for "shouting slogans at young age".
• Honest disclosure does not guarantee appointment. Where a candidate truthfully declared a concluded case, "the employer still has the right to consider antecedents, and cannot be compelled to appoint the candidate."
• The form must be specific. Only information the form specifically asks for has to be disclosed, and action cannot be based on not disclosing something it never asked.
• Deliberate suppression is treated seriously — the Court instanced suppression of multiple pending cases as grounds to cancel a candidature or terminate service.
• A confirmed employee is protected by process: removing someone in confirmed service for suppression requires a departmental enquiry.

The lesson for candidates is the reverse of what many assume. Disclosing a minor matter honestly leaves the decision to the employer's judgement; hiding it turns a minor matter into a question of truthfulness.

Ex-Servicemen

For ex-servicemen re-employed in civil posts, DoPT's procedure is lighter. Where the gap between discharge and re-employment is less than a year, no separate police verification is needed: the appointing authority relies on the Discharge Book and the services' own verification. Where it is more than a year, the period after discharge is verified through the district authorities of the places lived in.

How to Fill the Form

• Answer every question, yes or no, and give full particulars for every "yes".
• Declare a case even if you were acquitted, or it was closed. The form asks whether you were ever arrested or prosecuted — not only whether you were convicted.
• Keep a copy of exactly what you submitted.
• Report anything that happens afterwards to the authority you sent the form to, at once.

Verification is the last of several checks run by different authorities; the document verification guide and the medical examination guide cover the two before it. If you already hold a government post and are applying elsewhere, the NOC guide covers the permission you need from your current department.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I join my government job before police verification is complete?

Usually yes. Since 2016, DoPT allows a provisional appointment letter to be issued once you submit the attestation form and a self-declaration. Sensitive posts are the exception: there, appointment follows verification.

How long does police verification take?

DoPT expects it within six months. If the report is late, the department escalates to the state Director General of Police, and then to the Union Home Ministry. A delay alone is not a bad sign.

Should I mention a case in which I was acquitted?

If the form asks about it, yes. The central attestation form asks whether you have ever been arrested or prosecuted, not only convicted — and an acquittal after you submit the form must also be reported. Leaving out a case the form asks about is suppression, whatever its outcome.

Will a minor case cost me the job?

Not automatically. The Supreme Court held that employers have discretion and may condone trivial matters, though truthful disclosure does not oblige them to appoint you. What the Court treated seriously is deliberate suppression.

Can my appointment be cancelled years later?

The form warns that suppression discovered at any time during service makes the services liable to termination. For a confirmed employee, the Supreme Court requires a departmental enquiry before removal.

In Summary

Police verification checks your character and antecedents through the attestation form, and since 2016 it usually runs while you are already working on a provisional appointment. The form asks about detention, arrest, prosecution, pending cases, convictions and debarment, and expects every change after submission to be reported. Employers have discretion over what a disclosed matter means; suppression is what turns a small matter into a lost job. Answer every question, disclose what is asked, and keep a copy.

Sources

• DoPT OM No. 18011/8(s)/2017-Estt(B-II), 31 December 2018, applying OM No. 18011/2(s)/2016-Estt(B) of 29 June 2016 — provisional appointment, the six-month timetable, and the attestation form (Annexure I)
• Supreme Court of India, Avtar Singh v. Union of India, judgment of 21 July 2016