Who is probationary IAS officer Pooja Khedkar and why is her OBC status, ‘disability’ being questioned?

Pooja comes from a family of bureaucrats and politicians hailing from Pathardi tehsil in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district. Her father Diliprao Khedkar is a retired Maharashtra Pollution Control Board officer who now dabbles in politics. Her paternal grandfather was also a senior bureaucrat. Diliprao had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate and Pooja’s mother is a sarpanch of Bhalgaon village, where the family hails from.

Pooja completed her MBBS, attempted the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) several times and allegedly made the cut for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) in 2019. A video of a mock interview she gave shows her telling the panellists that she was not able to join the IRS due to some “technical issues in her OBC allocation” after which she says she applied and got the position of assistant director with the Sports Authority of India in November 2021.

Pooja appeared for the Civil Services Examination in 2021 and cleared the preliminary exam, main exam and interview, securing the 821st rank. A legal battle against the UPSC in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) followed after she failed to present herself for a medical examination to confirm her disability claim of suffering from “blindness and mental illness” that gave her the benefits under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities category.

Skipped medical test at AIIMS

As per a CAT order dated February 23, 2023, UPSC had asked Pooja to undergo a medical examination at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi in April 2022 but she sought a postponement “as she was contracted by Covid-19”. The medical examination was rescheduled to August 2022.

“The applicant was medically examined by AIIMS from August 26 to September 2 and was asked to undergo MRI (Brain) by a subject specialist in order to know the cause for loss of vision in both eyes. Despite making multiple attempts by the duty officer in AIIMS to contact the applicant, no response was received from her. Therefore the percentage of visual disability could not be assessed,” reads the order by CAT member Bhagwan Sahai and Justice M G Sewlikar.

It is learnt that she later submitted an MRI report done at a private facility that supported her claims of disability.

OBC reservation under a cloud

Social activists and social media users have raised questions about Pooja’s OBC (non-creamy layer) status since she ostensibly belongs to a well-to-do family.

Pune-based activist Vijay Kumbhar has pointed to disclosures made by her father Diliprao in his election affidavit to raise questions about her non-creamy layer status. “Her father’s election affidavit shows his income and wealth as Rs 40 crore. Their property includes 110 acres of agricultural land, seven flats, including one in Hiranandani; 900 grams of gold, diamonds, a gold watch worth Rs 17 lakh, four cars… Pooja herself possesses property worth Rs 17 crore. Shouldn’t this be investigated? How can such income fall into the non-creamy layer?” said Kumbhar.

Although Pooja has refused to answer queries about her family and told the media in Washim that her service rules do not allow her to make any comments, she had addressed a question about her income in a mock interview, a video of which is available on the internet. In the interview, Pooja says that she did not show any income in her declaration because although her father was a revenue officer, her mother was divorced. She claimed she stayed with her mother and was not in contact with her father.

Diliprao’s election affidavit does not mention any estrangement in the family.

‘Has unrealistic expectations’: What the collector said in his report

Pooja joined the Pune District Collectorate for her training on June 3. As per the report submitted by Pune District Collector Suhas Diwase to the state government, her “demands for facilities” had started even before this.

In a letter to the chief secretary, Diwase said that when the additional collector was away in Mumbai for four days, Pooja, without taking prior permission, emptied his antechamber and directed officials to provide furniture and other paraphernalia in the room. She also installed a nameplate outside this room.

When the collector was apprised of this, he restored the antechamber to its previous situation, following which he received a text message from Pooja, he said.

“It said that her colleagues (posted elsewhere as probationary officers) are being provided with chambers and vehicles. In some places, the offices of resident deputy collectors have been vacated to accommodate the new IAS officers. Removing me from the additional collector’s (ante) chamber would cause great insult to me and I won’t be able to tolerate it,” the collector quoted the message in his report.

On the same evening, Pooja’s father allegedly called a tehsildar on the phone and threatened that they would face trouble in the future because they were “deliberately harassing his daughter, a female officer”.

Before this, many probationary officers had completed their training in Pune district and none had demanded such facilities, the report pointed out.

The report said that from day one, the administration had observed Pooja’s “unrealistic expectations from the administration and administrative machinery only because she belongs to the IAS cadre…she has a sense of entitlement…”.

The collector said that he has personally counselled Pooja telling her that as an officer, duties are more important than rights and that she should acquire proper training and use that for doing good work which will bring prestige and honour.

“However, given her messages and behaviour, her conduct does not fit an administrative officer. Her insistence on facilities is improper,” the report said, adding that Diliprao’s conduct “is objectionable and deserving of punitive action”.

Diwase could not be contacted for comment.