New Delhi, July 31: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has canceled the provisional candidature of Puja Khedkar. The commission has barred Khedkar from appearing in any future examination.
UPSC issued a statement on Wednesday saying that Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, a provisionally recommended candidate of Civil Services Examination-2022 (CSE-2022) by the UPSC, was issued a show cause notice (SCN) on July 18 for attempting more times than the permissible limit prescribed in the examination rules by using fake identity. She had to respond to the SCN by July 25. However, she sought more time till August 4 so that he could gather the necessary documents for his reply.
UPSC has carefully considered the request of Pooja Manorama Dilip Khedkar and to meet the ends of justice, granted them time till 3:30 PM on 30th July to respond to the SCN. Pooja Manorama Dilip Khedkar was also clearly informed that this is the last opportunity for her and no further extension of time will be granted. She was also told in clear terms that if no response is received by the said date and time, UPSC will take further action without any further reference from them. In spite of the extension of time granted to them, they failed to submit their explanation within the stipulated time.
UPSC has carefully examined the available records and found her guilty of acting in contravention of the provisions of the CSE-2022 Rules. Her provisional candidature for CSE-2022 has been cancelled and she has also been permanently debarred from all future examinations and selections of UPSC.
In the backdrop of the case of Pooja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, the UPSC has thoroughly examined the available data of over 15,000 finally recommended candidates of CSE for 15 years from the year 2009 to 2023, including the number of attempts taken by them. After this detailed exercise, except the case of Pooja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, no other candidate has taken more attempts than the number permitted under the CSE rules. In the sole case of Pooja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of UPSC could not detect the number of her attempts primarily due to the fact that she had changed not only her name but also the name of her parents. The UPSC is in the process of further strengthening the SOP to ensure that such a case does not recur in future.
As regards complaints of submission of false certificates (particularly from OBC and PwBD categories), UPSC wishes to clarify that it carries out only preliminary checking of certificates, such as whether the certificate is issued by competent authority, year of issue of certificate, date of issue of certificate, whether there is any overwriting on the certificate, format of certificate etc.
Generally, if the certificate is issued by a competent authority, it is presumed to be genuine. The UPSC has neither the authority nor the means to check the authenticity of the thousands of certificates submitted by candidates every year. However, it is understood that the authenticity of the certificates is checked and verified by the authority appointed for the task.
