IAS Puja Khedkar's UPSC Candidature Cancelled, Debarred Permanently

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has cancelled Puja Khedkar's candidature, which was involved in a cheating controversy. According to the government press statement, on Wednesday, the commission found her guilty of violating the CSE-2022 rules. 

The press statement says, "The UPSC has scrutinized the available records 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 future Examinations/Selections of the UPSC,".

Delhi Police crime branch charged Khedkar in July for misusing the reservation quota by submitting fake disability and other backward caste certificates. She has secured her candidature in UPSC by submitting the counterfeit documents in the registration quota.

Earlier this month, the 2023-batch IAS officer, who had been a probationary assistant collector at the Pune district collectorate, was sent to Washim due to accusations that she had falsely claimed to have a physical disability.  

She continued to misuse her position by asking for additional perks and facilities. These accusations put her probation period on hold for a while, and she was sent to Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand.

In this case, the UPSC investigated the 15,000 students from 2009-23 regarding their attempts but found that Khedkar was the only one who exceeded the limit. An FIR was filed on the accused for faking the disability, submitting fake documents, and exceeding the attempts. UPSC stated that she changed her name and her parent's name, which made her unable to detect her number of attempts. In spite of the case, Puja Khedkar says that she was falsely accused. 

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