Former IAS trainee Puja Khedkar moved Delhi High Court on Monday challenging the Union Public Service Commission’s decision to cancel her candidature. The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and is slated to be heard on Wednesday.
On July 31, the UPSC cancelled the provisional candidature of Puja Khedkar, who was facing accusations of cheating and forgery.
The UPSC found Khedkar of violating rules and debarred her from all the future exams and 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. 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 government said in a statement.
A Show Cause Notice (SCN) was issued by the UPSC to Khedkar, a provisionally recommended candidate of the Civil Services Examination-2022 (CSE-2022) on July 18 for fraudulently availing attempts beyond the permissible limit provided for in the Examination Rules by faking her identity.
She was asked submit her response to the SCN by July 25. However, she requested for further time till August 4 so that she could gather the necessary documents for her response but she was given until July 30 to submit the documents, which she failed to do.
The commission also said that it reviewed 15 Years of CSE Data of more than 15,000 recommended candidates from the year 2009 to 2023 but found no other irregularities.
Khedkar has been at the centre of a controversy after she was transferred to Washim from Pune earlier this month amid allegations that she abused her power. Wile Puja Khedkar was embroiled in a row after social posts started questioning her merits, more details came out in the following days about her getting a fake disability certificate.
During her stint in Pune, she allegedly misused power and privileges by demanding perks and facilities she was not entitled to. She is also accused of availing the OBC and non-creamy layer quota in the UPSC.
Following the allegations against her, her probation period was put on hold and she was recalled to Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Uttarakhand’s Mussoorie.
A case under sections 420 (cheating), 464 (making a document in the name of a fictitious person), 465 (forgery) and 471 (passing off a forged document as genuine) of IPC and under sections 89 and 91 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and 66D of the Information Technology Act was registered against Khedkar after the UPSC filed a complaint against her.
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