IAS officer Ashok Khemka wants to be a lawyer, tops entrance exam

CHANDIGARH: Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has topped the Panjab University (PU) law entrance test, securing 166.37 marks.

"I always had an interest in law. I will do the evening course. I intend to take up this profession after my retirement. So, I have decided to pursue this course," Khemka told TOI.

Khemka was among the 3,987 candidates who had appeared for LLB (3-year) entrance test at PU on June 19. On Wednesday, PU released the provisional merit list for admission to the course for 2016-17 session.

Khemka, a whistleblower in the Robert Vadra land deal, has been transferred 46 times in 22 years of service. The 50-year-old bureaucrat had grabbed headlines after he cancelled a controversial land deal involving the Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law's firm and real estate giant DLF in 2012.

He was promoted to the post of principal secretary in January this year.

In April 2015, Haryana government had transferred Khemka to the post of secretary and director general of the state archaeology and museums department, a low-profile assignment, just four months after naming him state transport commissioner.

He hit the headlines again on Tuesday after Haryana government issued a fresh charge sheet against him for "causing avoidable loss on account of unsold stocks of 87,000 quintal wheat seeds". The case pertains to the period when Khemka was MD of HSDC during 2012-13.