Former Indian Administrative Services trainee officer Puja Khedkar on Monday moved the Delhi High Court against the Union Public Service Commission’s decision to revoke her candidature, reported ANI.
On July 31, the commission held that Khedkar faked her identity to appear for the civil services exam more times than she was allowed and permanently banned her from all the examinations that it conducts.
The Union Public Service Commission had booked Khedkar on July 19 for alleged forgery and issued a show cause notice for cancelling her candidature in the 2022 Civil Services Examination.
In her petition, Khedkar has said that she was not granted a hearing before the Union Public Service Commission cancelled her candidature and banned her, reported The Indian Express. She has also said that the commission did not provide her with a copy of its order.
The matter is expected to be heard on Wednesday.
The commission had issued a show cause notice to Khedkar on July 18 and asked her to reply by July 25. She requested time till August 4, after which the panel granted her an extension till July 30 as a final opportunity.
“Despite extension in time allowed to her, she failed to submit her explanation within the prescribed time,” the UPSC said in a press release.
The commission said it could not detect how many times Khedkar attempted the examination as she changed not only her name but also her parents’ names in her applications. “The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the standard operating procedure to ensure that such a case do not recur in the future,” the panel said.
In July, The Hindu reported that Khedkar appeared for the examination 12 times. Candidates from the Other Backward Classes can take the Civil Services Examination nine times.
The controversy relating to Khedkar, who was a Maharashtra cadre officer, erupted after Pune-based Right to Information activist Vijay Kumbhar alleged that she had become a civil services officer by availing benefits under the Other Backward Classes quota. In this category, those with parents having an annual income of more than Rs 8 lakh are classified in the “creamy layer”.
Khedkar was also accused of falsely claiming to be visually and mentally impaired.
However, in the press release announcing the cancellation of her candidature, the Union Public Service Commission did not say whether Khedkar submitted false certificates about her Other Backward Classes status and disability.
On August 1, a Delhi court denied anticipatory bail to her.
The court also directed the Delhi Police to widen the scope of its investigation to probe whether any other person had wrongly availed benefits of the reservations for the Other Backward Classes and persons with disabilities.
The police must also investigate if officials of the Union Public Service Commission had helped Khedkar in the alleged fraud, the court ordered.