Bombay High Court says protesting MPSC aspirants are students, not anti-nationals, and seeks an account of nearly 70,000 vacancies

9 October 2026

A division bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna heard a petition by a Pune resident on the protests by Maharashtra Public Service Commission aspirants in the city.
The protests followed questions over the conduct of the MPSC drug inspector examination, with thousands of aspirants gathered at three locations in Pune.
The bench said the protesters are students, not anti-nationals, and that students who find irregularities have every right to protest.
It asked the State to restore aspirants' confidence in recruitment examinations and said all upcoming processes must be fair and impartial.
The court directed the State to file an affidavit within three weeks setting out its recruitment plan and giving details of nearly 70,000 vacancies, broken down by department and by reservation category.
Advocate General Milind Sathe told the court that the aspirants' demands included the resignation of the MPSC chairman, an examination fee of ₹100 and all examinations being held offline.
The State said a representation on the MPSC chairman had been forwarded to the Governor.
The bench asked the protesters to return to their studies, said backlog vacancies should be cleared first, and adjourned the hearing by three weeks.