Delhi High Court extends till September 5 interim protection from arrest to IAS probationer Puja Khedkar  

New Delhi, August 29

The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended till September 5 the interim protection from arrest granted to former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, who has been accused of cheating and wrongly availing OBC and disability quota benefits.

Justice Subramonium Prasad deferred hearing on the anticipatory bail plea by Khedkar till then and granted liberty to the police to file a fresh status report in the meantime.

Both UPSC and the Delhi Police have sought dismissal of her plea for pre-arrest bail.

In a rejoinder filed to the stand of the authorities, Khedkar has denied the allegations levelled against her and asserted that she has neither misrepresented nor cheated in the process of successfully clearing Civil Services Examination 2022.

She also said UPSC has no power to disqualify her candidature.

“(Her) selection (was) on the basis of merit in the category of Persons with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) and has attempted fifth time under the category whereas the available attempts are nine in the said category. The attempts given prior to this from 2012 to 2017 was not under this category and cannot be mixed up to disentitle applicant as a disabled candidate,” the rejoinder said.

“As such pursuant to the selection and appointment as a probationer, the respondent no. 2 (UPSC) ceases the power to disqualify the candidature and DOPT alone can take action under the All India services Act 1954 and the Probationer Rules therein as per Rule 19 of the CSE 2022 Rules,” it added.

Khedkar further said it was wrong on the part of UPSC to claim that she misrepresented her name when the commission itself verified her identity through biometric data collected during the personality test and all documents were also verified.