Puja Khedkar Tells Delhi Excessive Court docket UPSC Has No Energy To Disqualify Her

The UPSC final month cancelled Puja Khedkar’s candidature

New Delhi:

Former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, who has been accused of dishonest and wrongly securing OBC (Different Backward Class) and incapacity quota advantages, has advised the Delhi Excessive Court docket that the Union Public Service Fee (UPSC) – which conducts the civil companies examination – has no energy to take disqualify her.

The UPSC final month cancelled Puja Khedkar’s candidature and debarred her from future exams. The Fee alleged that she misrepresented info in her software for the UPSC Civil Companies Examination, 2022 to get reservation advantages.

“As soon as chosen and appointed as a Probationary Officer, UPSC doesn’t have the ability to disqualify the candidature,” Puja Khedkar, who’s looking for anticipatory bail within the legal case in opposition to her, stated in a response filed earlier than the courtroom on the UPSC’s costs in opposition to her.

She stated that now solely the Division of Personnel and Coaching (DoPT) of the Central Authorities can take motion in opposition to her.

Puja Khedkar On UPSC’s “Modified Her Identify” Cost

The UPSC has claimed that Puja Khedkar tried the uber-competitive qualifying check greater than the six instances permitted for a common class candidate. She did so by altering her title, and that of her dad and mom, which is why the Fee stated it couldn’t detect the violation.

Puja Khedkar, nevertheless, refuted these allegations and stated that there was no change in her title or surname from 2012 to 2022. She additionally stated that she had not given any unsuitable details about herself to the UPSC.

“UPSC verified my identification via biometric information. The Fee didn’t discover my paperwork faux or incorrect. My academic certificates, Aadhaar card, date of beginning, and different private info had been discovered to be completely right,” she advised the courtroom.

“All the required verifications had been additionally executed by DoPT. As per DoPT, a medical board constituted by AIIMS performed my medical examination. The board discovered my incapacity to be as much as 47% and greater than the 40% incapacity required for the PwBD (Individual with Benchmark Incapacity) class,” she stated in her reply.

Puja Khedkar’s “Fraud” Not Solely Towards Us However Public Too: UPSC

The UPSC, earlier this month, opposed within the Delhi Excessive Court docket an anticipatory bail petition by Puja Khedkar, saying she dedicated “fraud” in opposition to the fee and the general public. 

In its reply filed in courtroom on August 21, the UPSC stated Puja Khedkar’s custodial interrogation was essential to unearth the magnitude of the “fraud” that might not have been executed with out the assistance of different people. Subsequently, her pre-arrest bail plea ought to be dismissed, it stated.

“The gravity of the fraud dedicated is unprecedented in nature having been dedicated in opposition to not solely a constitutional physique — the complainant — whose traditions are untrammelled and unparalleled but in addition in opposition to the general public at giant, together with the residents of this nation who’ve utmost religion upon the credibility of the UPSC in addition to individuals who couldn’t be appointed regardless of being duly eligible and certified attributable to unlawful means employed by the applicant to hunt appointment,” the UPSC stated.

The Delhi Police has additionally sought dismissal of the pre-arrest bail plea on the bottom that any reduction to her would hinder its probe into the “deep-rooted conspiracy” and that the case has wider implications on public belief in addition to the integrity of the civil companies examination.

The Delhi Excessive Court docket will immediately hear her petition.