The Delhi High Court on Monday granted interim protection from arrest to former trainee Indian Administrative Services officer Puja Khedkar who has been accused of fraudulently clearing the Union Public Service Commission examination, reported Bar and Bench.

Justice Subramonium Prasad granted relief to Khedkar till August 21.

Khedkar had moved the High Court seeking anticipatory bail after Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala of the Patiala House Courts on August 1 had denied her request.

On July 31, the Union Public Service Commission held that Khedkar faked her identity to appear for the civil services exam 12 times, which is more than what she was allowed, and permanently banned her from all the examinations that it conducts.

The commission had booked Khedkar on July 19 for alleged forgery and issued a show cause notice for cancelling her candidature in the 2022 Civil Services Examination.

On Monday, the commission told the High Court that the case involves a well-planned conspiracy and an investigation is ongoing.

“This is a case where mental faculties have been abused in a classical manner,” Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik, appearing for the commission, told the court. “There are multiple coincidences and this is a well-planned crime.”

However, the High Court asked the police and the commission why they required Khedkar’s custody. It said that Khedkar had given a false representative in her application form, reported The Hindu.

“Where is the question of anyone else being involved in the entire episode which will require her custody,” it asked.

The High Court said that the trial court was swayed by the allegations against Khedkar and did not properly deal with the bail plea, Bar and Bench reported.

“The judgement of the trial court goes on the offence committed and holds that the offence has been committed but there is hardly any discussion as to why bail sought cannot be granted,” the High Court said. “Though I am not sitting in appeal, except from one paragraph about the PP [public prosecutor] submission that there are others involved and conspiracy is to be unearthed, there is no other discussion on bail.”

Case against Khedkar

The controversy relating to Khedkar, who was a Maharashtra cadre officer, 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, those with parents having an annual income of more than Rs 8 lakh are classified in the “creamy layer”.

Khedkar was also accused of falsely claiming to be visually and mentally impaired.

The commission, however, did not say on July 31 whether Khedkar submitted false certificates about her Other Backward Classes status and disability. The commission said it only carries out a preliminary scrutiny of the certificates and that generally, documents are taken as genuine if they have been issued by the competent authority.

“The UPSC neither has the mandate nor the wherewithal to check the veracity of thousands of certificates submitted by the candidates every year,” the commission said. “However, it is understood that scrutiny and verification of genuineness of certificates is carried out by the authorities mandate[d] with the task.”

Also read: Why allegations that trainee IAS officer misused quota are a body blow to disability rights