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

The UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) on Wednesday said it has cancelled the provisional candidature of probationary IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer Puja Khedkar and debarred her from all future examinations or selections.

"The UPSC has examined the available records carefully and found her guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the CSE-2022 Rules," the commission said in a statement. It also said Khedkar's provisional candidature for the CSE (Civil Services Examination) 2022 has been "cancelled" and she has been "debarred permanently" from all future UPSC examinations or selections.

In tandem with the above statement, the UPSC has also declared that it has thoroughly examined available data of more than 15,000 finally recommended candidates of the CSEs from 2009-23 with respect to the number of attempts availed by them.

"After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Ms. Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, no other candidate has been found to have availed more number of attempts than permitted under the CSE Rules," the commission has stated.

This, despite the fact that scores of serving and retired IAS officers have publicly raised questions about whether Khedkar could have been the only one who manipulated the system, and how she was offered her probationary posting in the first place, considering she refused to undergo the mandatory medical examination five (or six, according to some reports) times.

Criticism also arose about the manner in which former UPSC chairman Manoj Soni was allowed to ostensibly resign on 19 July with a crucial probe underway, and the Congress claimed that the man who Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself made chairman in 2023 with a six-year tenure was actually "nudged out".

The commission said a show cause notice (SCN) was issued to Khedkar on 18 July for "fraudulently" availing attempts beyond the permissible limit in the examination by "faking" her identity. She was to submit her response to the SCN by 25 July but requested until 4 August to gather the necessary documents for her response, it said.

The UPSC granted her a "final opportunity" to submit her response by 3.30 pm on 30 July but she "failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time", the commission said.

With inputs from PTI