UPSC Cancels Provisional Candidature Of Puja Khedkar; 15,000 Other Recommended Candidates Under Scanner

Reported by Tikam Shekhawat & Sumit Singh

New Delhi/Pune, 31st July 2024: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) issued a Show Cause Notice (SCN) to Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, a provisionally recommended candidate of the Civil Services Examination-2022 (CSE-2022), on July 18, 2024. The notice was for allegedly exceeding the permissible attempt limit by falsifying her identity. Ms. Khedkar was required to respond by July 25, 2024, but she requested an extension until August 4, 2024, to gather necessary documents for her response.

Upon consideration, the UPSC granted her an extension until 3:30 pm on July 30, 2024, emphasizing that this was the final deadline. It was made clear that no further extensions would be permitted and that failure to respond would result in further action without additional notice. Despite the extension, Khedkar did not submit her explanation within the allotted time.

After thoroughly examining the records, the UPSC found Khedkar in violation of the CSE-2022 Rules. Consequently, her provisional candidature for CSE-2022 was canceled, and she was permanently barred from all future UPSC examinations and selections.

In light of this incident, the UPSC reviewed data from over 15,000 candidates recommended for the Civil Services from 2009 to 2023 regarding the number of attempts they had made. Apart from Khedkar’s case, no other candidate was found to have exceeded the allowed number of attempts. Khedkar’s fraudulent activity went undetected due to her changing her name and her parents’ names. The UPSC is now working on improving its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to prevent such cases in the future.

Regarding complaints about false certificates, particularly for OBC and PwBD categories, the UPSC clarified that it conducts only a preliminary check of these certificates. This includes verifying whether the certificate is issued by a competent authority, its issuance date, and the format of the certificate. The UPSC generally accepts certificates as genuine if issued by the appropriate authority, as it lacks the mandate and resources to verify the authenticity of thousands of certificates submitted each year. The detailed scrutiny and verification are carried out by the respective authorities assigned to this task.