Days after UPSC cancels Puja Khedkar's candidature, ex-IAS trainee officer makes big move

Former IAS trainee Puja Khedkar moved Delhi High Court on Monday challenging the Union Public Service Commission’s decision to cancel her candidature. The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and is slated to be heard on Wednesday.
On July 31, the UPSC cancelled the provisional candidature of Puja Khedkar, who was facing accusations of cheating and forgery.

Khedkar was barred from all upcoming exams and selections by the UPSC after it was discovered that she had broken the rules. The government said in a statement,“The UPSC has examined the available records carefully 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 the future Examinations/Selections of the UPSC."

Khedkar, a provisionally recommended candidate for the Civil Services Examination-2022 (CSE-2022), received a Show Cause Notice (SCN) from the UPSC on July 18 for using a false identity to fraudulently obtain attempts that exceeded the allowable limit specified in the Examination Rules.

She was instructed to send the SCN her response by July 25. She was given until July 30 to submit the documents, which she neglected to do. Instead, she asked for an extension until August 4 to collect the supporting documentation for her response.
 
The commission added that it examined 15 years of CSE data pertaining to over 15,000 candidates who were recommended between 2009 and 2023 and discovered no additional anomalies. After Khedkar was moved from Pune to Washim earlier this month due to accusations that she abused her position, she became the focus of a controversy. Following social media posts casting doubt on Wile Puja Khedkar's qualifications, additional information regarding her obtaining a forged disability certificate surfaced, further inflaming the controversy surrounding her.

She is accused of abusing her position of authority and privilege in Pune by requesting benefits and facilities to which she was not legally entitled. She is also charged with using the UPSC's OBC and non-creamy layer quotas.
 
Her probationary period was suspended in response to the accusations made against her, and she was later called back to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. Following the UPSC's complaint, Khedkar was charged under sections 420 (cheating), 464 (making a document in the name of a fictitious person), 465 (forgery), and 471 (passing off a forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as sections 89 and 91 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and 66D of the Information Technology Act.