'She's not a murderer': Supreme Court grants bail to ex-IAS officer Puja Khedkar in UPSC fraud case

The Supreme Court granted anticipatory bail to former IAS officer Puja Khedkar, accused of faking OBC and disability certificates to clear UPSC exams. The court questioned the severity of charges while allowing her relief.

Image Credit: GOOGLE

Supreme Court on Wednesday gave anticipatory bail to former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, who is accused of cheating to clear the civil services exam by wrongly using OBC and disability reservation benefits.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma questioned the seriousness of the case, saying, “What grave crime has she committed? She is not a drug lord or a terrorist. She has not committed murder. She is not an NDPS offender.”

The judges also advised better systems or software to prevent such frauds and pointed out that Khedkar has already lost her career. “She has lost everything and will not get a job anywhere,” they said.

The Delhi Police and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had opposed her bail, arguing she defrauded both the public and the system. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had denied her bail and removed her interim protection.

The UPSC has canceled her selection and banned her from all future exams. The central government also officially removed her from the Indian Administrative Service, using Rule 12 of the IAS (Probation) Rules.

Khedkar became controversial during her probation posting in Pune, where she faced allegations of misuse of power. She was later transferred to Washim in Maharashtra.

Her case became more serious when Maharashtra’s OBC welfare minister ordered a probe into her OBC status. She is accused of submitting false certificates—one claiming she belonged to the OBC non-creamy layer and others showing different disabilities, including mental illness, low vision, and locomotor disabilities.

Another major issue was her use of different names, “Khedkar Puja Deeliprao” and “Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar”, while applying. This raised suspicions about her possibly bypassing the rule that limits the number of attempts for UPSC exams.

Before being selected for the IAS, Khedkar was an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer and worked at the Sports Authority of India. Even for the IRS selection, she used the OBC and PwBD (low vision) categories. But for the IAS exam, she submitted new certificates claiming multiple disabilities and a different OBC certificate.

The case has triggered a wider debate on loopholes in the civil services selection process and the need for stricter checks on certificate claims.