Puja Khedkar discharged from Indian Administrative Service
The former Maharashtra cadre officer was in July accused of faking her identity to appear for the civil services exam more times than allowed.
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The Centre on Friday discharged probationer Puja Khedkar from the Indian Administrative Service, reported The Hindu.
This came five weeks after the Union Public Service Commission revoked Khedkar’s selection as a trainee officer and permanently banned her from all the examinations it conducts. She had been serving as an assistant collector in Pune.
While serving officers may be dismissed, probationers are discharged.
The Department of Personnel and Training said in its Friday order: “The Central Government discharges Ms Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar, IAS Probationer, from the Indian Administrative Service under Rule 12 of IAS (Probation) Rules, 1954, with immediate effect.”
Rule 12 states that probationers may be discharged “if the Central Government is satisfied that the probationer was ineligible for recruitment to the Service or is unsuitable for being a member of the Service”.
The controversy around Khedkar’s selection erupted after Pune-based Right to Information activist Vijay Kumbhar alleged that she had become a civil services officer by availing benefits under the Other Backward Classes quota.
In this category, persons with parents having an annual income of more than Rs 8 lakh are classified in the “creamy layer” and are not eligible for reservation benefits.
Khedkar’s father, Diliprao Khedkar, had unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election as a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate. Kumbhar claimed that according to his election affidavit,...
