Supreme Court Grants Anticipatory Bail to Sacked IAS Probationer Puja Khedkar

New Delhi — The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Puja Khedkar, a sacked probationary IAS officer from the Maharashtra cadre. She faces serious allegations of submitting false OBC and disability (PwBD) certificates and fraudulently appearing in the civil services exam beyond the allowed number of attempts.

A bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and S.C. Sharma confirmed its earlier interim order that prevented any coercive action against Khedkar. The FIR in question was filed by the Delhi Police on the basis of a complaint by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The court directed Khedkar to fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation and warned her not to misuse the protection granted or influence witnesses in any way.

Earlier this year, on January 15, the Supreme Court had given her interim relief while asking the Delhi Police and UPSC to respond to her bail request.

Before the top court’s intervention, Khedkar’s anticipatory bail plea had been rejected by both a Delhi trial court and the Delhi High Court. On December 15, 2024, Justice Chandra Dhari Singh of the High Court had dismissed her petition, stating that there was a strong prima facie case against her and that custodial interrogation was necessary to uncover the facts.

The High Court had earlier reserved its decision on November 28, 2024, after hearing arguments from both sides. During that period, the interim protection granted to her on August 12 remained in place.

A lower court in Delhi had also previously turned down her bail plea and directed the investigating team to explore whether any UPSC insiders had assisted her. The Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala had even directed the police to widen the probe to check if other candidates had wrongly availed quota benefits.

Khedkar’s troubles began when the UPSC found she had misused the OBC and disability reservation categories to secure a spot in the civil services. Following this, the UPSC not only cancelled her selection but also barred her for life from taking the civil services examination again.

The Centre dismissed her from the Indian Administrative Service on September 7, 2024, just a month after the UPSC’s findings were made official. The case has since drawn attention to wider issues of misuse of reservation quotas in civil services recruitment.