Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Mar 18: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended its previous order until April 15, preventing any coercive action against dismissed Maharashtra cadre probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar. She is accused of fraudulently securing additional attempts in the Civil Services Examination (CSE) by submitting false OBC and PwBD (Persons with Benchmark Disabilities) certificates and misrepresenting her identity.
During a brief hearing, a Bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and S.C. Sharma questioned Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju, representing the Delhi Police, about the slow pace of the investigation.
ASG Raju argued that Khedkar’s custodial interrogation was necessary to uncover the "larger scam" and identify middlemen involved. “We need to determine whether this is an isolated incident or part of a larger pattern,” he stated.
In response, the Supreme Court allowed the Delhi Police to expand the investigation’s scope but questioned the necessity of Khedkar’s custodial interrogation. The court emphasized that the probe should be conducted diligently and scheduled the next hearing for April 15.
In a previous hearing, the Bench led by Justice Nagarathna directed Khedkar to continue cooperating with the investigation. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing Khedkar, assured the court that she was “willing and available” for questioning by the Delhi Police.
On January 15, the Supreme Court instructed both the Delhi Police and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to respond to Khedkar’s anticipatory bail plea while granting her interim protection from arrest. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had dismissed her pre-arrest bail petition and lifted its prior order shielding her from detention.
In its December 15, 2024 judgment, a Delhi High Court Bench led by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh stated that a strong prima facie case existed against Khedkar. The court asserted that custodial interrogation was necessary to uncover critical facts. On November 28, 2024, the Bench had reserved its verdict on her anticipatory bail plea but maintained interim protection from arrest until the final ruling.
Before this, a trial court had rejected Khedkar’s anticipatory bail plea and directed investigators to determine if insiders at the UPSC had aided her fraudulent attempts. Expanding the probe’s scope, Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala also instructed Delhi Police to investigate whether other UPSC candidates had similarly exploited quota benefits.
The Central government dismissed Khedkar from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) on September 7, 2024, a month after the UPSC revoked her selection. The UPSC found her guilty of misusing OBC and disability quota benefits and subsequently barred her for life from taking the entrance exam after she was discovered to have assumed multiple identities for repeated attempts.
A status report submitted by the Delhi Police to the High Court revealed that Khedkar had submitted two different disability certificates—one from 2018 and another from 2021—purportedly issued by the Ahmednagar District Civil Hospital. These certificates, citing ‘multiple disabilities,’ were used in her 2022 and 2023 UPSC attempts. However, hospital authorities later denied issuing these documents.
Investigations further revealed that Khedkar availed relaxed eligibility criteria for OBC and PwBD candidates despite her father being a former Maharashtra government officer with assets worth Rs 40 crore, disqualifying her from the non-creamy layer OBC quota.
The UPSC admitted that its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) failed to detect her multiple attempts because she had changed her name as well as her parents’ names during different exam cycles.
The case continues to unfold, with further hearings set for April 15.