Days after the Centre discharged ex-trainee IAS Puja Khedkar from the prestigious service, the Delhi High Court has now sought Khedkar's response to a plea by UPSC seeking initiation of perjury proceedings against her for allegedly giving false statement and affidavit in the court.
Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to Khedkar on the UPSC's application and granted her three weeks to file a reply to it. The court listed the matter for further hearing on November 26. On July 31, the UPSC cancelled Khedkar's candidature and debarred her from future exams.
The UPSC contended that the July 31 decision was communicated to her on her registered email ID the same day. It said it was the same email ID, which was registered in her online application for the Civil Service Program (CSP) 2022. However, she made a false statement in the court that she had not been served with the order and she came to know of it only through the press release issued by the UPSC, it claimed.
Senior advocate Naresh Kaushik, representing the UPSC, submitted that the former officer even gave false information to her lawyers and she very well knew that she was making a false statement on oath yet she deliberately swore to the correctness of the false statement.
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“Making false averments on oath with the view to obtain favourable orders from the court, being a very serious offence, undermines the very foundation of the legal system,” said the application filed by advocate Vardhman Kaushik. It claimed that Khedkar's affidavit was of July 28, 2024 when the July 31 speaking order issued by the UPSC was not even in existence.
The UPSC urged the court to initiate appropriate proceedings and direct an inquiry against Khedkar in accordance with law for committing the offence of perjury. Khedkar had earlier approached the high court challenging the UPSC's press release stating that her candidature has been cancelled.
She had claimed that the cancellation order was never communicated to her and she came to know about it only through the press release. She was accused of 'misrepresenting information' in her application for the UPSC Civil Services Examination, 2022. Khedkar was also accused of cheating and wrongly availing of OBC and disability quota benefits.
(With inputs from PTI)
