UPSC cancels candidature of Puja Khedkar from IAS, debars her from all future selections

It said the provisional candidature of the 2023 batch probationary IAS officer for the CSE-2022 (Civil Services Examination-2022) has been 'cancelled' and she has also been 'debarred permanently' from all future examinations or selections conducted by the UPSC.

Mumbai: Coming down heavily on Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday cancelled her candidature (Probationary Officer) of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and barred her from appearing in any examinations/selections conducted by the commission in the future.

The UPSC has found Khedkar (32), who passed the Civil Services Examination in 2022 (CSE-2022), guilty of faking her identity to take the exam multiple times.

Besides, the UPSC also reviewed the available data of more than 15,000 finally recommended candidates of the CSEs, a 15-year-period from 2009-2023, with respect to the number of attempts availed by them - and barring Khedkar no other candidate have been found violating CSE Rules.

Last week, the UPSC initiated a series of actions against her, including filing an FIR alleging that she had fraudulently availed attempts beyond the permissible limit by faking her identity.

Earlier, she was attached to Maharashtra government as Supernumerary Assistant Collector for her PO period, however, she was relieved after directives from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.

The UPSC issued a show cause notice (SCN) to her on July 18 and asked her to submit a response by July 25, but she sought time till August 4. After considering her request, the UPSC granted her time till July 30.

“Despite extension in time allowed to her, she failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time. The UPSC has examined the available records carefully and found her guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the CSE-2022 Rules. Her provisional candidature for the CSE-2022 has been cancelled and she has also been debarred permanently from all the future Examinations/Selections of the UPSC,” the UPSC said in a press statement.

In the backdrop of the case of Khedkar, the UPSC thoroughly examined the available data of more than 15,000 finally recommended candidates from 2009-2023 with respect to the number of attempts availed by them.

“After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Khedkar, no other candidate has been found to have availed more number of attempts than permitted under the CSE Rules. In the lone case of Khedkar, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the UPSC could not detect her number of attempts primarily due to the fact that she changed not only her name but also her parents’ name,” it said.

The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future.

As far as the complaints regarding the submission of false certificates (specifically OBC & PwBD categories) are concerned, the UPSC clarified that it does only a preliminary scrutiny of the certificates like - whether the certificate has been issued by the competent authority, the year to which the certificate pertains, issuing date of the certificate, whether there is any overwriting on the certificate, format of the certificate.

"Generally, the certificate is taken as genuine, if it has been issued by the competent authority. The UPSC neither has the mandate nor the wherewithal to check the veracity of thousands of certificates submitted by the candidates every year. However, it is understood that scrutiny and verification of genuineness of certificates is carried out by the authorities mandated with this task,” it said.