Did Om Birla's daughter clear UPSC without appearing for exam? Nope, here are the facts

Did Om Birla's daughter clear UPSC without appearing for exam? Nope, here are the facts

Following Bharatiya Janata Party MP Om Birla's re-appointment as the Lok Sabha speaker, a rumour went viral on social media that his daughterAnjali Birla cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam without even appearing for it.

An X user shared Anjali Birla's photo and wrote, "India is the only country where you can clear UPSC without sitting in the examination. But for that,you have to be born as a daughter of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Anjali Birla D/o Om Birla cleared UPSC without giving any examination, she is a model by profession. Modi Govt is making a mockery of our Education System." Its archived version can be seen here.

Similar claims were made on Facebookand Threads as well.

India Today Fact Check found that the viral claims are not true. Anjali Birla did appear in the UPSC exam in 2019 and was selected through the Consolidated Reserve List, which is part of the UPSC selection process.

OUR PROBE

We found news reportsabout how Anjali Birla cleared the UPSC exam in her first attempt. According to Mint's report, the results for the 2019 exams were declared on August 4, 2020–829 aspirants cleared it. Anjali's name was on the reserve list, which had 89 aspirants whose names were announced on January 4, 2021.

We found the reserve list notification from January 4, 2021, on UPSC's official website. It noted that according to rules 16(4) and 16(5), the commission makes a reserve list of qualified candidates. Eighty-nine such aspirants were selected for this list and Anjali Birla was one of them. Anjali's name and her roll number (0851876) can be seen in the picture below.

To reach the interview stage, a UPSC aspirant has to appear for prelims and mains exam. When we checked the results of the 2019 UPSC prelims, we found Anjali Birla's name in the list of qualified candidates.

We also found the 2019 UPSC mains exam's results which were declared on January 14, 2020. Anjali's name and roll number can be seen in this list as well.

The UPSC is responsible for the appointment of Grade A employees along with IAS officers. Every year, according to the Central government's demand, such aspirants are recommended. This list is called the Consolidated Reserve List.

The UPSC issued a clarification on the matter on January 7, 2021, according to which, the Union makes a Consolidated Reserve List in which aspirants from reserved and non-reserved categories are recommended.

A similar claim had gone viral previously as well. At the time, Aaj Tak had debunked this. The Quint had spoken to Anjali Birla, who had said, "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 was released in January 2021, you can see that UPSC mentions that the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) asked for more vacancies to be filled."

Anjali Birla, a graduate of Delhi's Ramjas College, was selected for Indian Railway Account Service.

Thus, it's clear that Anjali Birla did appear for the UPSC exam and that the viral claim is baseless.