Key Points
The Department of Personnel and Training has asked the Rajasthan government to verify the Income and Asset certificate submitted by IAS officer Ravi Kumar Sihag under the EWS category.
The probe follows a complaint alleging misuse of reservation benefits in the 2021 Civil Services Examination. Sihag, who secured All India Rank 18 in 2021, has said an inquiry is ongoing and clarity will emerge after its completion.
This was Sihag's fourth attempt. In earlier attempts he did not compete any reserved category. Claims spread about his family selling off land to qualify for the EWS certificate.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has sought verification of the Income and Asset (I&A) certificate submitted by IAS officer Ravi Kumar Sihag, raising questions over his eligibility under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category during the 2021 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Examination.
The Centre, in May 2025, wrote to Rajasthan Chief Secretary Sudhansh Pant asking for details on the authenticity of the certificate issued to the officer, who is a domicile of Sri Ganganagar district in Rajasthan. As of December 2025, no clarification has come.
Ravi Kumar Sihag is a 2022 batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre and is currently posted as Sub Divisional Officer (Revenue) in Lakhnadon, Seoni district. The communication from the DoPT has also been marked to the Madhya Pradesh government. Officials said such letters are issued when complaints are received and require verification by the concerned state authorities.
The scrutiny centres on allegations that Sihag submitted a false or misleading I&A certificate to claim the EWS quota in his fourth attempt at the civil services examination. An IAS aspirant quoted in reports questioned how an officer who had already entered a Group A service earlier could qualify as economically weaker at a later stage. Claims also spread about his family selling off land to qualify for the certificate.
Sihag’s UPSC journey has been widely discussed. He appeared for the civil services examination four times. In 2018, he secured All India Rank 337 and was allotted the Indian Defence Accounts Service. In 2019, he improved his rank to 317 and joined the Indian Railway Traffic Service. He failed to qualify in his third attempt. In 2021, he secured All India Rank 18 and was allotted the IAS. He was a Hindi medium candidate and his success story received significant attention on social media.
According to the allegations, Sihag did not claim any reservation category in his earlier attempts but applied under the EWS category in 2021. Critics have claimed that his family owned agricultural land that could have made him ineligible for the quota. It has also been alleged that land – with some claiming as much as 15 hectares – was transferred to relatives before the 2021 examination to meet the income and asset criteria.
To support this argument, many have pointed to the fact that Sihag hid the EWS category when sharing his name on the qualifiers list on social media.
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The probe was triggered by a complaint filed by Vijay Kumbhar in August 2024, a Pune based social activist. Kumbhar has previously raised complaints against civil servants over alleged misuse of reservation categories. He was also the first to complain against IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, who was dismissed in 2024 over alleged submission of false disability and OBC certificates.
According to information cited in reports, the present exercise is part of a broader verification drive involving at least 15 officers across services. These include 11 IAS officers, two IPS officers, one IFS officer and one IRS officer from states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala. The complaint filed by Kumbhar initially mentioned 22 officers across batches and alleged manipulation of reservation eligibility to secure higher ranks and preferred services.
In July 2024, the DoPT had also initiated inquiries against several serving officers to re-examine disability parameters under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category, following questions raised on social media about inconsistencies between claimed disabilities and public activities.
Seoni Collector Sanskriti Jain has clarified that her office has not been asked to conduct any inquiry against Sihag, indicating that the matter is being handled at the central and state government levels rather than the district administration.
Responding to media queries, Sihag has confirmed that an inquiry is underway and said that the facts will become clear once the investigation is complete.
(DS)
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