Centre sacks Puja Khedkar from Indian Administrative Service

UPSC has earlier said Khedkar committed a fraud against the Commission and the public, and her custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth the "magnitude of the fraud" that could not have been done without the help of other individuals.

New Delhi: The central government has discharged Puja Khedkar from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) with immediate effect, over a month after the Union Public Service Commission cancelled her selection, official sources said on Saturday.

Khedkar, who was a trainee officer from the 2023 batch, has been accused of cheating and wrongly availing Other Backward Classes (OBC) and disability quota benefits to ensure her selection in the government service. She has denied all allegations.

The central government, vide order dated September 6, 2024, "discharged" Khedkar from the Indian Administrative Service under Rule 12 of IAS (Probation) Rules, 1954, with immediate effect, the sources said.

An IAS officer is "dismissed" from service while a probationer is "discharged".

One of the provisions of Rule 12 provides for discharge on the grounds of a probationer being found to be ineligible to be recruited to the Service, they said.

Khedkar, who was provisionally allotted the Indian Administrative Service (Maharashtra cadre), on the basis of the result of the civil services examination (CSE)-2022 taken by her, was also accused of misusing power and privileges during her training in Pune.

A criminal case was registered against her in July by Delhi Police for "misrepresenting and falsifying facts" following a "thorough investigation" by the UPSC into allegations of misconduct.

As reports emerged that she may have been ineligible to be a candidate at the CSE- 2022 and previous exams, a single-member committee was constituted on July 11, 2024, to verify her candidature claims.

The panel submitted its reports on July 24, 2024. Taking note of the findings and conclusions of the committee, the government proceeded for a summary enquiry according to the provisions of Rule 12 of IAS (Probation) Rules, 1954, including giving Khedkar a reasonable opportunity.

It was seen that she had applied and appeared for the CSE between 2012 to 2023, the sources said.

According to the information submitted by herself in her civil services examination application forms between CSE- 2012 to CSE- 2023, it was seen that she had availed more attempts at examination than the maximum permissible limit of nine in her claimed category (Other Backward Classes and Persons with Benchmark Disability), which she had exhausted by attempting the civil services examinations between 2012 and 2020 i.e., prior to the CSE-2022 itself, they said.

After holding a summary enquiry, it was seen that she was ineligible to be a candidate at the CSE-2022, which was the year of her selection and appointment to the IAS, the sources said.

Therefore, she was ineligible to be recruited to the Indian Administrative Service, they added.

Meanwhile, on July 31, the UPSC cancelled her candidature and debarred her from future exams.

The Commission conducts the civil services exam annually in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to select officers for the IAS, Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

In a related development, Khedkar on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that she was willing to get herself medically examined at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), after the city police claimed that one of her disability certificates may be "forged" and "fabricated".

She made the submission before the court which is dealing with her anticipatory bail plea in the criminal case registered by the Delhi Police on the UPSC's complaint.