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Facing pushback, Fadnavis pauses online shift for MPSC recruitment exams
Fadnavis also insisted that the MPSC chairperson Vivek Bhimanwar’s statement on the topic had been misconstrued.
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Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday ruled out any immediate move to shift the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) recruitment examinations to a computer-based test (CBT) model, reassuring aspirants that the existing offline Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheet system will continue.
“There is currently no plan to conduct the MPSC examinations online. We have already postponed the earlier decision to hold the examinations online, and we will continue to conduct them under the existing system,” the chief minister said, responding to concerns around the state’s ability to transition state recruitment examinations to an online format without glitches.
Fadnavis also insisted that the MPSC chairperson Vivek Bhimanwar’s statement had been misconstrued. “Whatever the MPSC chairperson said was distorted. Nowhere did he state that the examinations are switching online,” he said.
In June, the Bhimanwar-led state public service recruitment body announced that it would move to a computer-based test model for all competitive exams for Group A, B, and C cadres starting 2027.
The announcement sparked widespread opposition from civil service aspirants, who questioned the state’s digital exam infrastructure and feared potential technical glitches, private centre malpractices, and poor connectivity in rural areas.
Under the deferred online-examination policy, the Maharashtra Civil Services Gazetted Group A and Group B combined prelims, Maharashtra Group B (non-gazetted) services prelims and Maharashtra Group C Services prelims were proposed to be conducted twice or more frequently each year. Candidates would take the examinations directly on computers instead of filling OMR sheets manually.
Fadnavis said that if the government decides to revisit the issue in the future, it would first hold consultations with candidates. “Even in the future, if we consider making any such change, no decision will be taken without first discussing it with the students and aspirants,” he said.
Following the sharp opposition, the commission deferred the CBT transition until July 2027 and paused plans to hold the Maharashtra Group-C Services Combined Preliminary Examination-2026 via CBT. While the MPSC argued that online testing would speed up result processing and ensure adherence to examination schedules, student groups demanded retaining the traditional OMR-based format until public digital testing facilities are fully reliable across all districts.
