Preeti Sudan appointed as new UPSC Chairperson

New Delhi: Preeti Sudan, an IAS officer from the Karnataka cadre's 1983 batch, has been appointed as the new chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), effective August 1. Sudan, who previously served as the Union Food Secretary, is the second woman to lead the UPSC, following R.M. Bathew in 1996. Her tenure will continue until April 2025.

The appointment follows the resignation of former UPSC chairman Manoj Soni on July 20, who cited personal reasons for stepping down before the end of his tenure in May 2029. Soni's resignation came amidst a controversy involving UPSC candidates allegedly securing employment with fake certificates, though his resignation was reported to be unrelated to this scandal.

The controversy has intensified with the case of trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar, accused of falsifying identity documents and presenting a fake disability certificate. This case has led to widespread social media discussions, with names and details of IAS and IPS officers allegedly using fraudulent certificates for benefits intended for the Other Backward Class (non-creamy layer) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) categories.

Manoj Soni, a political science scholar specializing in international relations, has had a distinguished career, including teaching at Sardar Patel University and serving as Vice-Chancellor at two universities. Despite his resignation, the UPSC, which is supposed to have ten members, currently has only seven.

The UPSC is now focusing on implementing measures like Aadhaar, facial recognition, and QR codes to ensure fool-proof examinations in response to the recent controversies.

With inputs from PTI