Fadnavis asks the governor for an Article 317 inquiry into the MPSC paper leak

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday asked Governor Jishnu Dev Varma to constitute a high-level inquiry into the Maharashtra Public Service Commission and to start proceedings against current and former members and chairpersons under Article 317 of the Constitution. He proposed a committee headed by a retired High Court judge, with a report inside three months. The request follows a confirmed leak in the Drug Inspector examination run for the Food and Drug Administration, and protests in Pune led by MLA Rohit Pawar.

Article 317 is the removal clause for members of a public service commission. A member can be removed by the president only after the Supreme Court, on a reference, has inquired and found misbehaviour. Fadnavis told student representatives that officials who hold constitutional posts cannot be dismissed by a state order. The governor's role at this step is to move the reference. The president and the court come after that. A three-month judicial report is the state's proposed input, not the constitutional finding itself.

Who has already lost a job

MPSC Secretary Mahendra Harpalkar has been relieved of his duties after the chief minister's talks with student representatives. IANS reported the relief as official. Three candidates who benefited directly from the Drug Inspector leak have been arrested, along with several alleged accomplices. Pawar's protest is aimed higher: resignation of chairman Vivek Bhimanwar, who took the post in early 2026. Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad, from a party inside the ruling alliance, has asked for the board to be dissolved. A demand for dissolution and an Article 317 reference are different instruments. Dissolution is a political slogan. Article 317 is a case-by-case removal that can take months and can fail if the Supreme Court does not find misbehaviour.

What the leak did to one exam

The Drug Inspector paper is a professional entry exam, not a general civil-service prelim. A leak that reached three candidates is enough to void trust in that sitting, and not enough, by itself, to prove that every member of the commission handled the paper. That distinction is why Fadnavis has asked for an inquiry into current and former members rather than announcing removals. Aspirants in Pune are not waiting on that distinction. They want Bhimanwar out now. The chairman has not resigned in the accounts published on Monday.

Competitive-exam leaks have brought down commission members in other states through the same article. The pattern is a political announcement, a governor's reference, a long court inquiry, and a result that arrives after the next exam cycle has already been rescheduled. Candidates who sat the leaked paper need a nearer decision: whether that sitting will be cancelled and rerun. Fadnavis's Monday letter does not, in the reports carried by IANS, cancel the Drug Inspector result. It opens a removal track against the people who ran the commission.

The alliance split in public

Gaikwad's call to dissolve the board is the awkward line for the government. A Shiv Sena MLA asking for a commission appointed under this alliance to be wound up gives Pawar, from the opposition NCP faction, company he does not usually have. Fadnavis has answered with a constitutional procedure instead of a dissolution. That choice protects the legal form and leaves the street protest without the resignation it asked for.

The next paper is the governor's. If Dev Varma sends the reference on, the file moves to the president and the Supreme Court, and the retired judge's three-month clock starts only if the state actually appoints that committee. Until then, Harpalkar is out, three candidates are in custody, Bhimanwar is still chairman, and the Drug Inspector aspirants in Pune are still outside.