The Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) has cancelled the entire recruitment process for Drug Inspector, Group-B posts in the Food and Drug Administration Department following a preliminary police inquiry into alleged malpractice in the screening examination held on March 22, 2026.
The Commission has decided to conduct a fresh examination under Advertisement No. 116/2025. Candidates who had already applied will not have to submit fresh applications or pay another examination fee. The date of the re-examination will be announced separately.
MPSC received complaints from candidates and public representatives between July 22 and July 26 alleging irregularities in the examination. The complaints claimed that some candidates had received either the question paper or a set of questions on March 20, two days before the screening test, with the material allegedly circulated through social media and other electronic platforms.
Following the complaints, MPSC approached Mumbai Police on July 27 and sought an investigation.
A preliminary inquiry report was subsequently submitted to the Commission by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Mumbai Police Commissioner’s Office.
According to MPSC’s account of the police findings, the preliminary inquiry indicated prima facie that one candidate had received the question set before the examination and benefited from it.
The Commission, however, has not stated that the entire official question paper was leaked or that multiple candidates benefited from the material.
MPSC said it decided to cancel the recruitment process to protect the confidentiality, integrity, transparency and impartiality of its examinations and maintain candidates’ confidence in the recruitment system.
The decision effectively sets aside a recruitment exercise that had already progressed to the interview and provisional merit-list stages.
The recruitment drive was for 154 Drug Inspector posts, with around 44,500 candidates appearing for the screening examination conducted at centres across Maharashtra’s six divisional headquarters.
The result was declared on June 12, with 506 candidates qualifying for the interview stage. A provisional merit list comprising 488 candidates was subsequently published.
The controversy intensified in July after NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar publicly alleged irregularities in the recruitment examination and claimed that questions had been made available to candidates before the test.
MPSC subsequently referred the allegations to the police for verification.
With the recruitment process now cancelled, candidates who applied under the original advertisement will have to appear for the fresh screening examination before the selection process can resume.
