Puja Khedkar No IAS: UPSC Cancels Provisional Candidature, Bars Her from All Future Exams
Moneylife Digital Team 02 August 2024
After finding Puja Khedkar guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the Civil Services Examination (CSE)-2022 Rules, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has cancelled her provisional candidature for the CSE-2022. She is also debarred permanently from all future examinations or selections of the UPSC.
 
UPSC had issued a show-cause notice to Ms Khedkar and asked her to submit her response by 3.30pm on 30 July 2024. She was also told categorically that it was the last and final opportunity for her and that 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 date above and time, the UPSC would take further action without entertaining any further reference from her. Despite an extension in time allowed to her, she failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time," UPSC says in a release.
 
Further, against the backdrop of Ms Khedkar's case, UPSC says it thoroughly examined the available data of more than 15,000 finally recommended candidates of the CSEs for 15 years from 2009 to 2023 about the number of attempts they availed. 
 
It says, "After this detailed exercise, barring the case of Ms 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 Ms 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 added.
 
Talking about submission of false certificates, specifically other backward class (OBC) and persons with disability (PwBD) categories, UPSC says it does only preliminary scrutiny of the certificates, such as 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 and the 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 added.
Comments
iaminprabhu
3 months ago
Next step is the Court case expedite & put her in JAIL at the earliest!

Also many RESERVED JOBS throughout Govt. Jobs from Villages, Towns, Cities, Municipal to State & Central WILL HAVE PEOPLE GIVING FAKE CERTIFICATES! These need fool proof system to CHEVK VERIFY & bring to book the fakesters
Meenal Mamdani
3 months ago
We owe a debt of gratitude to the RTI activist who uncovered the whole scam.
We need more such selfless, honest and dedicated people to expose political wrongdoings.
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