The Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2026, scheduled to be conducted on Sunday, has been postponed after a leaked question paper was found during a raid in Thane's Bhiwandi, just a day before the exam.
As the development which affected around six lakh candidates followed the national scandal caused by the last month's leak of the NEET-UG paper, Opposition leaders trained their guns on the BJP-led government, saying it was busy breaking political parties instead of ensuring foolproof examinations.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered the constitution of a Special Investigation Team headed by Thane Joint Commissioner of Police Panjabrao Ugale to probe the paper leak, sources said.
Fadnavis spoke to School Education Minister Dada Bhuse and state Director General of Police Sadanand Date and asked them to take strict action against the culprits, they added.
The exam was scheduled to be conducted at 1,028 centres across the state on Sunday. The authority said that will be conducted in 37 places and 1028 exam centres across Maharashtra.
In an official statement issued on Saturday, the Maharashtra State Examination Council said the test has been postponed to maintain the "transparency and the integrity" of the examination process.
"The rescheduled examination date will be declared in the next two to three days,” said Priya Shinde, deputy commissioner of Maharashtra State Examination Council.
The breach came to light when the Bhiwandi police, acting on a tip-off, conducted a raid at the Diamond Hotel in Bhiwandi in the early hours of Saturday.
During the raid, the police found the leaked question papers of the exam in the possession of some individuals. Officials from the Maharashtra State Examination Council were immediately summoned to verify the material. Upon close inspection, it was confirmed that several questions in the possession of the suspects matched the actual question paper drafted for the June 2026 TET.
Subsequently, the authorities announced the cancellation of the exam and a criminal case was registered at the Bhiwandi Police Station.
Three people have been arrested so far in connection with the incident. The suspects were nabbed from the Sahar airport in Mumbai and police are investigating how they got the exam papers, along with their money transactions.
Last year also a similar incident was reported from Kolhapur where the TET question paper was allegedly leaked.
Slamming the repeated irregularities in examinations, Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal on Saturday alleged that the BJP-led state government was busy in poaching MLAs and MPs instead of prioritising the future of the youth.
He also stated that the Congress will launch a massive protest if the perpetrators are not brought to justice.
"If the BJP government fails to take strict actions and find out the source of the leak, then the Congress party will come out on the streets. They (BJP government) cannot even conduct an exam in a proper manner. The BJP is playing with the future of the students," Sapkal said.
