High Court Rejects Request to Cancel Exam Over Marking Pattern Leak The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court recently dismissed a petition seeking the cancellation of an MPSC departmental promotion examination for state excise personnel, ruling that a leaked marking pattern did not justify scrapping the entire process. A division bench comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Rajnish Vyas upheld the majority view of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MAT), rejecting the argument that the leak compromised the fairness of the exam. The petition, filed by 11 State Excise constables, challenged the examination held on September 23, 2025, for 137 sub-inspector posts. The petitioners claimed an unofficial PDF outlining topic-wise and subtopic-wise mark distribution for Papers I and II had circulated on WhatsApp groups a week before the exam, and that the actual question papers aligned with this distribution, giving some candidates an unfair advantage. The MAT’s majority opinion had stated that while the leak constituted a serious procedural lapse, it did not warrant the cancellation of the exam unless there was verified evidence of a question-paper leak. The High Court endorsed this reasoning, emphasizing that the core testing mechanism remained intact. The court noted that the leak, though problematic, did not undermine the entire examination process. The petitioners had argued that the leak violated principles of equality under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, but the bench countered that the petitioners failed to demonstrate the leak was systemic, widespread, or beyond investigation. The MAT’s two judges presented contrasting views on the matter.#bombay_high_court #maharashtra_public_service_commission #mpsc_departmental_promotion_examination #state_excise_personnel #whatsapp_groups
