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

     New Delhi, July 31, 2024: In a stern action, the UPSC today cancelled the provisional candidature of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar and permanently debarred her from all the future exams and selections for fraudulently availing attempts beyond the permissible limit provided for in the Examination Rules by faking her identity.

     “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 Commission said.

     In the lone case of Puja 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. The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future, it said.

     The Union Public Service Commission had issued a show cause notice to Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, a provisionally recommended candidate of the Civil Services Examination-2022 (CSE-2022) on 18th July, 2024 for fraudulently availing attempts beyond the permissible limit provided for in the Examination Rules by faking her identity, UPSC said today.

     She was to submit her response to the show cause notice by July 25, 2024. However, she requested for further time till August 04, 2024 so that she could gather the necessary documents for her response.

     “The UPSC carefully considered the request of Ms. Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar and in order to meet the ends of justice, she was granted time till 3:30 pm of 30th July, 2024 so as to enable her to submit the response to the show cause notice,” UPSC said.

     “It was also categorically made clear to Ms. Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar that it was last and final opportunity to her and no further extension in time would be allowed. It was also conveyed to her in unequivocal terms that if no response was received by the aforesaid date/time, the UPSC would take further action without entertaining any further reference from her. Despite extension in time allowed to her, she failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time,” it said.

     “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 Commission said.

     In the backdrop of the case of Puja Khedkar, the UPSC has thoroughly examined the available data of more than 15,000 finally recommended candidates of the CSEs from the year 2009 to 2023 i.e. for 15 years with respect to the number of attempts availed by them.

      After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Puja Khedkar, no other candidate has been found to have availed more number of attempts than permitted under the CSE Rules, the UPSC said.

     In the lone case of Puja 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. The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in the future, it said.

     So far as the complaints regarding the submission of false certificates (specifically OBC & PwBD categories) are concerned, the UPSC wishes to clarify that it does only a preliminary scrutiny of the certificates viz. 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 etc.

     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 mandate with the task, the UPSC said.