UPSC Cancels IAS Officer’s Candidature, Debars Her Permanently for Fraudulent Attempts

UPSC Cancels IAS Officer's Candidature, Debars Her Permanently for Fraudulent Attempts

Ashiq Butt | July 31, 2024 | 06:10 PM IST | Delhi, India, Jobs/Exams/Selection List/Entrance Exams | Follow on Google News

UPSC Cancels IAS Officer’s Candidature, Debars Her Permanently for Fraudulent Attempts

UPSC Cancels IAS Officer’s Candidature, Debars Her Permanently for Fraudulent Attempts

Key Highlights:

1. UPSC cancels Puja Khedkar’s IAS candidature, debars her permanently.
2. Khedkar fraudulently exceeded CSE attempt limits by faking her identity.
3. UPSC strengthens procedures to prevent future cases of this nature.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has cancelled the provisional candidature of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, a 2023 batch probationary IAS officer, for violating the Civil Services Examination (CSE)-2022 rules. Khedkar has been permanently debarred from all future UPSC examinations or selections.

The UPSC found Khedkar guilty of exceeding the permissible number of attempts by faking her identity, which included changing her own name as well as her parents’ names.

This case marks the first such instance in the last 15 years where the UPSC’s standard operating procedure failed to detect the misuse of attempts. The Commission stated that they are in the process of strengthening their procedures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Khedkar was issued a show-cause notice on July 18, 2024, asking her to explain her fraudulent actions. Despite being given multiple opportunities to respond, she failed to submit an explanation within the prescribed deadline of July 30.

In response to this case, the UPSC reviewed the records of over 15,000 successful candidates from the last 15 years and confirmed that no other candidate had exceeded the attempt limits.

The UPSC also acknowledged that while it conducts a preliminary scrutiny of submitted certificates, verifying the authenticity of these documents is beyond its mandate and resources, leaving that responsibility to other authorities.

The UPSC has lodged a police case against Khedkar for her fraudulent activities, which allowed her to exceed the permissible number of attempts in the civil services exam.

Ashiq Butt

Ashiq Butt – is VoM News's senior staffer worked since year 2015 and he deals with correspondency and social media handles. Hailing from Doda's Marmat, Ashiq has strong grip over the collection of the data and it's compiling feature.