Puja Khedkar row: HC issues notice on UPSC plea seeking perjury proceedings, to hear Khedkar’s response on Sept 26
A bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad sought Khedkar’s response on UPSC's plea seeking perjury proceedings and fixed September 26 as the next date of hearing.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued a notice in Union Public Service Commission's (UPSC’s) plea seeking initiation of perjury proceedings against former probationary Indian Administrative (IAS) officer Puja Khedkar for allegedly making false statements in her affidavit regarding the commission collecting her biometrics.
A bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad sought Khedkar’s response and fixed September 26 as the next date of hearing, the day when the court would consider her plea seeking anticipatory bail in the case registered by the Delhi police for fraudulently availing attempts in the UPSC examination beyond the permissible limit by faking her identity.
Also read: Delhi HC issues notice to Puja Khedkar on UPSC plea claiming she made 'incorrect submissions'
The commission has preferred an application days after the high court sought Khedkar’s response in another plea also seeking initiation of perjury proceedings against her for allegedly making false statements regarding receipt of the commission’s press release cancelling her candidature and filing a false affidavit in court.
In the application argued by senior advocate Naresh Kaushik, the commission claimed that Puja in her bail application filed a rejoinder wherein she falsely submitted an affidavit that the commission collected her biometrics.
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Denying the claims, the commission said that it has not collected any information from any candidate during the personality test of the CSE held so far.
“That the claim that the commission collected her biometrics is falsely made with the sole aim and purpose of deceiving this Hon’ble Court for obtaining favourable orders. The said claim is denied since the commission did not collect any biometrics (eyes and fingerprints) during her personality test or carried out any attempted verification based on the same,” the application read.
Seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the discharged officer, the commission in the application also stated that Khedkar committed perjury by filing a false affidavit and the intent behind making such blatantly false statements naturally appeared to be an attempt to obtain favorable orders based on the false statement. Such statement, the application stated, has a bearing on the core issue in the instant case which relates and pertains to the commission of forgery to avail attempts beyond the permissible limits in UPSC CSE.
Khedkar has been accused of faking her identity to get more attempts in the UPSC examination than the number of attempts already allotted and has been charged with a commission of an offense punishable under Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) Indian Penal Code; 66D Information Technology Act, and 89 and 91 Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016.
The prosecution’s case against Khedkar is that she had already exhausted all the permissible attempts available to PWBD+OBC candidates (nine attempts) by CSE 2020, and she was not eligible further to appear for CSE 2021; however, she deliberately changed her name in the year 2021 and appeared in CSE 2021, 2022, and 2023 by making “incorrect or false statements regarding the number of attempts already availed by her”.
On July 31, the UPSC issued a press release cancelling her candidature after Khedkar had failed to respond to the UPSC's show cause notice issued on July 18 “for fraudulently availing attempts beyond the permissible limit provided for in the Civil Service Examination 2022 Rules, by faking her identity.” The commission's investigation was hindered by the fact that Khedkar had changed not only her name but also her parents' names, making it difficult to detect the number of attempts she had made.
After she was denied anticipatory bail by the city court, Khedkar approached the Delhi High Court and was granted interim protection from arrest till September 26. On September 7, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) discharged her from service.
