Social media is rife with claims that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s daughter Anjali Birla did not take any exam or interview and cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Examination in first attempt, insinuating that she got the privilege of being the Speaker’s daughter.
However, Anjali Birla shared the copy of her admit card with The Quint’s WebQoof team and said that she followed the due procedure. We also scanned the merit lists of UPSC examination 2019 and found her roll number in the preliminary and mains result list.
CLAIM
The claim along with the image reads: “लोकसभा स्पीकर ओम बिड़ला की बेटी पहले प्रयास में बनी IAS. न कोई एग्जाम न कोई इंटरव्यू. बस एक सवाल आपके पिताजी क्या करते है? 90 seat जो बैकडोर इंट्री के लिये रखा गया था रुझान आने लगा है. इसे कहते है सत्ता का नशा”
(Translated: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s daughter cleared IAS in first attempt. She didn’t undertake any exam nor interview. Just one question asked what does your father do? Trends are showing for the 90 seats that were kept for backward class. This is misuse of power.)
Several social media users shared the image on Facebook with the same claim.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We searched on the UPSC website and came across a notification that was released on 4 January 2021 which had Anjali Birla’s name under the ‘Consolidated Reserve List’.
It is pertinent to note that a candidate has to take a preliminary exam, then appear for a written Mains exam and finally undergo a personal interview to clear the UPSC exam.
The Consolidated Reserve list also mentions Birla’s roll number. Taking a cue from there, we searched for the roll number ‘0851876’ in the UPSC Preliminary Examination 2019 Result list.
The list showed that Birla had indeed cleared the Preliminary examination.
Next, we looked for the same roll number in the UPSC Main Examination 2019 Result list and found that she had cleared this exam as well.
ANJALI BIRLA SAYS SHE TOOK REQUIRED EXAMS
While speaking to The Quint’s WebQoof team, Anjali Birla said that she has taken all the required examinations and followed the due procedure.
“UPSC had earlier notified that they have 927 vacancies for the 2019 batch. But when the final results came out, they had only filled 829 vacancies. So, in that August 2020 list, my name was not there because I missed the cut off for the General category by 8 marks. Now, in the notification that has been released in January 2021, you can see that UPSC mentions that Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) asked for more vacancies to be filled.”Anjali Birla, Om Birla’s Daughter
Birla also shared a copy of her Admit Card with us which states: ‘You are admitted to Civil Services (Main) Examination 2019’.
Further, she shared a filled copy of the Detailed Application Form (DAF). According to the UPSC guidelines, candidates who have qualified on the basis of the result of the written part of the Examinations/Preliminary Examinations are required to fill DAF.
The information shared by Birla corroborates with the one mentioned in UPSC’s January 2021 notification which mentions:
“The Commission, in accordance with the Rule 16 (4) & (5) of the Civil Services Examination Rules, was also maintaining a Consolidated Reserve List in order of merit below the last recommended candidate under the respective categories.”
It further adds, “As sought by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), the Commission has now recommended 89 candidates which include 73 General, 14 OBC, 01 EWS and 01 SC, to fill up the remaining posts based on the Civil Services Examination, 2019.”
We also got in touch with Shakti Sinha, a former IAS officer, to understand the process and he too iterated that there is no "backhanded" way to get into the civil services. He said that it’s just not possible.
WHAT DOES UPSC HAVE TO SAY?
On Thursday, 7 January, UPSC also released a statement on the misleading claims being made on social media regarding the Reserve List in Civil Services Examinations.
“Along with the list of recommended candidates of Main result, the Commission also maintains a consolidated Reserve List of candidates of general and reserved categories ranking below the last recommended candidate in the merit order under each of the categories for subsequent 2 recommendation after concluding the exercise of service allocation of the recommended candidates of the Main result by the Government {Sub-rule 16(4) of the Gazette Notification of Civil Services Examination, 2019},” the statement reads.
It further said that the resultant vacancies that are generated because of the category movements are “filled up from the Reserve List, on a requisition received from the Government for each category including the General (unreserved) category.”
Evidently, social media users falsely claimed that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s daughter did not take any exam or interview to clear the UPSC exam in first attempt.
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