UPSC Cancels Puja Khedkar’s Candidature, Debars Her From Future Exams

New Delhi: Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday cancelled the candidature of controversial probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar and barred her from taking any exams in future.

She was a provisionally recommended candidate of the Civil Services Examination-2022.

According to UPSC, Puja Khedkar not only changed her name but also her parents’ name in the application, which is why the system couldn’t detect the malpractice. “The Commission is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future,” it added.

With regards to complaints regarding the submission of false certificates (specifically OBC and PwBD categories), the UPSC clarified that it does only a preliminary scrutiny on 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. “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 mandate with the task.”

Khedkar had hit headlines earlier this month over her demands for a separate cabin and staff, which led to her transfer from Pune to Washim.

The UPSC, earlier, filed a police case against her for “fraudulently” availing attempts beyond the permissible limit. She was booked by the Delhi Police Crime Branch on July 19 for misusing the disability and Other Backward Class (non-creamy layer) quotas to secure her candidature in the civil services exam.