Degree Certificate Damaged in Dispatch: What to Do Next

Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.

Your original degree reached you torn, water-stained or crushed. The fix depends on who caused the damage and when you noticed it. Work through this flow first.

• If the packet was visibly damaged on delivery, do not sign a clean receipt. Refuse it or accept it with a written “received damaged” remark, and photograph the packet and the certificate before you move it. If you already signed clean, your claim is weaker but not dead.
• If the damage is from the courier or post, lodge a claim with the courier or India Post within their time limit, and ask the university for a re-issue or duplicate.
• If the certificate was poorly packed by the university (no hard board, no waterproof sleeve), the university shares the fault, and you can ask for a free re-issue rather than paying the duplicate fee.
• If it was sent by ordinary post with no insurance, there is little to claim from the post, so the practical route is a duplicate from the university plus a request to waive the fee given the dispatch defect.
• In every case, get the dispatch register entry by RTI to fix the mode, the insurance and the packing on record.

This guide is about physical damage in transit. If the degree never arrived, see convocation certificate missing. If it carries a name error, see degree certificate spelling correction.

Universities treat these differently, and the wording changes your fee.

Where the certificate is damaged but readable and you can hand it back, ask for a re-issue against the surrendered damaged original. That is faster and cheaper than the lost-degree duplicate route, and it sidesteps the affidavit and newspaper-notice steps.

The carrier's fault is provable only for a short window.

1. For a courier, file a damage claim with the courier's customer care, quoting the consignment number, with photos of the packet and the damaged certificate. Couriers have strict claim time limits, often a few days from delivery.
2. For India Post registered or speed post, lodge a complaint at indiapost.gov.in or the booking post office. A registered or insured article can carry compensation; ordinary post does not.
3. Keep the outer packet. It shows the packing quality and any handling damage, and the carrier will often ask for it.
4. Get the university's dispatch detail so you know the mode and whether insurance was paid. This decides whether a claim is even possible.

A degree is a single sheet that should never travel without a hard board and a waterproof sleeve. If it arrived crushed or water-damaged because it was sent in a thin envelope with no stiffener, the dispatch was defective at the university's end, not only the carrier's. That is your strongest ground to ask the university to re-issue free of charge. Put it plainly: the certificate was inadequately packed for transit, the damage resulted, and a re-issue without fee is the fair remedy. The dispatch register and any packing instruction, obtained by RTI, support this.

A public university holds the dispatch register and the packing or dispatch instructions. These are records under the RTI Act, 2005.

To: The Public Information Officer, [University name]
[Examination / Degree Section]

Subject: Application under the RTI Act, 2005 regarding my degree
certificate received damaged in transit

For Enrolment No. [number], [course], passed in [year], degree
dispatched on or around [date]:

1. Please provide the dispatch register entry for my degree, showing the
   date, mode (registered post / speed post / courier), the consignment
   or registration number and the address.
2. Please state whether the article was insured, and for what value.
3. Please provide the packing or dispatch instruction or standard
   followed for degree certificates.
4. Please provide the rule and fee for re-issue of a degree damaged in
   transit, and the conditions for waiver of the fee.

I enclose the application fee of Rs 10 by [mode].

[Name, address, mobile, email, date]

Sandeep's degree from a Delhi university reached him during the monsoon in a plain envelope, the ink run and the lower border torn. He photographed the packet and certificate before opening fully, and accepted delivery with a “received damaged” note. He filed an RTI and learned the degree had been sent by ordinary post with no insurance, in an envelope with no board. With no insurance, an India Post claim was pointless. So he changed his target. He wrote to the registrar, attached the photos and the RTI reply showing no protective packing, and asked for a free re-issue against the surrendered damaged original on the ground of defective dispatch. The university re-issued the degree without charging the duplicate fee. The lesson: when the carrier claim is dead, the packing fault keeps your remedy alive.

• Signing a clean delivery receipt for a visibly damaged packet.
• Throwing away the outer packet before the carrier claim is settled.
• Asking for a costly duplicate when a cheaper re-issue against the damaged original applies.
• Missing the courier's short claim window.
• Not getting the dispatch mode and insurance detail, which decides whether any claim is possible.

• Convocation certificate missing
• Degree certificate spelling correction
• Degree verification delayed
• Practical Guides hub

See how to file RTI online and first and second appeals.

If you can return the damaged original, ask for a re-issue against the surrendered original. It is usually cheaper and faster than the lost-degree duplicate route and skips the affidavit step.

You can lodge a damage claim with the courier quoting the consignment number and photos, within their claim window. Registered or insured India Post articles can carry compensation; ordinary post does not.

The university shares the fault for defective packing. That is your strongest ground to ask for a free re-issue, especially when there was no insurance to claim from the carrier.

It is weaker but not always dead. Photograph the damage at once and act fast. The packing-fault argument against the university does not depend on the delivery receipt.

Yes. It shows the packing quality and handling damage, and the carrier usually asks for it during a claim.

No. RTI gets you the dispatch mode, insurance status and packing standard. You use that record to ask the university for a re-issue, ideally without fee.

Download the damaged degree re-issue checklist (PDF).