UPSC Chairman Manoj Soni Announces Early Resignation, Five Years Before Term Ends

UPSC chairman Manoj Soni resigns from his position five years before his term was supposed to end.

Manoj Soni, the chairman of the Union Public Service Commission, UPSC has resigned from his position five years before his term expiry. In his resignation letter, Manoj Soni mentioned that he is leaving the job because of some personal reasons. As reported by news agency PTI, his resignation is not related to the controversies and allegations involving the Union Public Service Commission that emerged after the issue with probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has not accepted his resignation yet. 

On Friday, the UPSC announced that they had filed a criminal case against Puja Khedkar. Puja is accused of faking her identity to illegally attempt the civil services exam beyond her eligibility and has been barred from future selections. Since the issue with Khedkar became public, social media has been filled with claims about other IAS and IPS officers using fake certificates. Users have posted names, photos, and details of some officers, alleging they used fake certificates to get benefits meant for those in the Other Backward Class (non-creamy layer) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).

Manoj Soni took over as a member of the Commission on June 28, 2017. He took an oath as the UPSC chairman on May 16, 2023, and his term was supposed to end on May 15, 2029. According to some sources, Soni was not keen on becoming the UPSC chairman and had requested to be relieved. However, the request raised by Soni was not accepted then. Manoj Soni now desires to devote more time to socio religious activities. 

Prior to Soni's appointment in the UPSC, he had served three terms as Vice-Chancellor. These include two consecutive terms from August 1, 2009, to July 31, 2015, as VC of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University (BAOU), Gujarat, and one term as VC of The Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda from April 2005 to April 2008. When he joined MSU, Soni was the youngest Vice-Chancellor ever in India. He is a political science scholar who specialises in international relations. Soni taught international relations at Sardar Patel University in Vallabh Vidyanagar from 1991 to 2016, except for the time he was Vice-Chancellor at two other universities.

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