Viral social media posts and tweets claiming that Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla's daughter Anjali Birla became an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre without taking any exam or clearing an interview are false.
The narrative further claims that Anjali Birla used her father's position to become a civil servant whereas thousands of aspirants toil to crack it.
The posts have been captioned as, "Om Birla, speaker of Lok Sabha's daughter, became an IAS without taking any exam. This is changing India. Blind fans, now tell what wil happen to the talented bunch who go to Delhi and take lessons from coaching classes and toil day and night to become an IAS officer. What is their fault?" (Original text in Hindi: ओम बिड़ला लोकसभा अध्यक्ष की बेटी बगैर परीक्षा के IAS बनी। बदलता भारत..अंधभक्तो बताओ जो प्रतिभागी दिल्ली जाकर कोचिंग करके रात दिन एक कर देते हैं IAS बनने के लिए उनका क्या कसूर है?)
Here is an archive of one such tweet.
Photos of Anjali Birla and Om Birla are being circulated with the claim.
The same narrative is viral on Facebook.
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Fact Check
BOOM scanned the What's New section of the UPSC website and found a notification on the Reserve List of Civil Services Examination (2019). Anjali Birla's name can be found in the 67th serial number of the Reserve List.
According to the introduction of the list, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) asked for more vacancies to be filled. An excerpt from the notification that has been released in January 2021 reads, "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. As sought by the Department of Personnel & Training, 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."
What is a Reserve List?
Additionally, the UPSC site also clarified what a 'Reserve List' is in the Civil Services Examination and how it is applied following misleading information circulating on social media. The communique stated that the Reserve List is not a waiting list.
The first Main results constitute of candidates from the general category and reserved category who qualify based on their own merit and not availing any concession or relaxation in eligibility or selection criteria. The Commission simultaneously maintains a consolidated Reserve List of candidates comprising of general and reserved categories, ranking below the first Main exam qualifiers. The Reserved List candidates are eligible for subsequent recommendation enabling them to choose a service of higher preference.
It reads, "The Reserve list is necessitated in a multi-service examination to allow candidates of reserved categories to choose a service of higher preference who qualify at or above general qualifying standard without availing any concession/relaxation at any stage of the examination."
To clear the UPSC exam, a candidate has to clear preliminary exams, Main exam and crack the personal interview.
Anjali Birla cleared both prelim and Main exam
Taking cue from Anjali Birla's role number 0851876, we scanned the list of qualified candidates in the UPSC Preliminary Examination 2019. The list features Birla's roll number and thus negates claims that she did not take the examinations to become an IAS cadre.
The Quint Webqoof also reached out to Birla, who confirmed that she had taken the required examinations. Anjali Birla told The Quint, "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."