The maximum number of fake institutions / universities as identified by the…

Concept — Under Section 22 of the UGC Act, 1956, the right to confer a degree belongs only to a university established by a Central, State or Provincial Act, an institution deemed to be a university under Section 3 of the Act, or an institution specially empowered by an Act of Parliament to award degrees. Any body that issues degrees outside this framework is a self-styled, unrecognised institution with no legal standing, and the University Grants Commission publishes a State-wise list of such bodies together with public warning notices.

Application — The UGC's May 2014 announcement placed 21 self-styled institutions on that list, spread across nine States and Union Territories. In the State-wise break-up, Uttar Pradesh accounted for the single largest block of entries and Delhi came next. Contemporaneous reports of the same list differ slightly on the exact tallies — Uttar Pradesh is reported at roughly eight to ten entries and Delhi at roughly five to seven — but every account of the 2014 list places Uttar Pradesh first, with no tie for the top position.

Cross-check — Comparing the four States/Union Territories offered:

Result — the maximum number of fake institutions / universities identified by the UGC in the year 2014 was in Uttar Pradesh.

Note — the UGC revises this list every year, so the 2014 ranking does not carry forward. Uttar Pradesh still headed the list as late as the 2020 edition; Delhi moved to the top of the same list only from the 2022 edition onwards. The qualifier “in the year 2014” in the question is therefore load-bearing.