IAS Officer Puja Khedkar Dismissed Over Alleged Fake Disability Certificate in UPSC Controversy

The central government dismissed Puja Khedkar from the Indian Administrative Service with immediate effect. Puja Khedkar, a 34-year-old trainee IAS officer in Pune, Maharashtra, was in controversy over her UPSC selection. She is accused of giving wrong information about her personal information and disability to appear in the UPSC CSE-2022 exam. UPSC has declared her ineligible. Now the central government has dismissed her.

Puja Khedkar had also filed a petition in the Delhi High Court a few days ago regarding this matter. In her petition, Puja Khedkar had appealed to the Delhi High Court to ignore 7 of her 12 attempts in the Civil Services Exam. Khedkar claimed that she had a problem with her knee. Therefore, she should have got opportunities in the 'Divyang' category only. She had also argued that despite having 47% disability, she appeared in the exam from the general category. The benchmark of disability for the Civil Services Exam is 40%.

On September 4, Delhi Police filed its status report in the Delhi High Court in the Puja Khedkar case. In this report, Delhi Police has made many big revelations. Delhi Police told the High Court that Puja Khedkar's disability certificate is fake. It has been said in this status report that the certificate given during the civil examination of 2022 and 2023 is fake. Puja Khedkar has also changed her name on this certificate. The police have said in its status report that the claim of this fake certificate being made from Maharashtra is also false. Police investigation has revealed that two certificates were issued from Ahmednagar Maharashtra in the years 2022 and 2024, but when the police sought information about these certificates from the medical authority, the authority was told that no disability certificate has been issued by them.