The Maharashtra Teachers Eligibility Test (Maha TET), scheduled for June 28, was postponed barely a day before the examination after authorities detected a suspected paper leak. The last-minute decision has left more than six lakh registered candidates, including thousands of in-service teachers, in uncertainty.
The postponement assumes greater significance because this year’s examination was the first after the Supreme Court made the Teachers Eligibility Test mandatory for a large section of teachers already in service. The ruling triggered record registrations, with many teachers viewing the examination as crucial to securing their jobs.
The incident has also revived questions over the credibility of Maha TET, an examination that has repeatedly courted controversy over the past decade.
What is Maha TET?
The Teachers Eligibility Test is the minimum qualification required for appointment as a teacher for Classes I to VIII.
While the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET), introduced by the National Council for Teacher Education in 2011, is conducted at the national level, Maharashtra introduced its own state-level examination, Maha TET, in 2013.
The examination comprises two papers. Candidates aspiring to teach Classes I to V must qualify Paper I, while those seeking appointments in upper primary schools (Classes VI to VIII) must clear both papers.
Over the years, Maha TET has also earned a reputation for being one of the country’s toughest teacher eligibility examinations, with the pass percentage rarely crossing 5-7 per cent. To give candidates more opportunities—particularly in-service teachers facing statutory deadlines—the state recently began conducting the examination twice a year.
Why has the examination been postponed?
The Maharashtra State Examination Council (MSEC), which conducts Maha TET, announced the postponement after Bhiwandi police unearthed a suspected paper leak on Saturday morning.
According to the council, police raided a location after receiving confidential information and recovered question papers allegedly in the possession of a group of individuals. A preliminary verification by MSEC officials found that some of the seized questions matched those in the June 2026 examination paper.
An FIR has since been registered. The council said the examination has been postponed—not cancelled—to ensure that it is conducted in a fair and transparent manner.
Why is this examination particularly important?
The June examination had drawn the highest-ever registrations, with more than six lakh candidates expected to appear.
A large number of them are in-service teachers affected by the Supreme Court’s September 2025 judgment, which retrospectively extended the TET requirement to teachers already working in schools.
The court ruled that teachers with more than five years of service remaining must clear TET by September 2027 to continue in service, failing which they would face compulsory retirement. Those with less than five years of service left were exempted from passing the examination but would not be eligible for promotions.
Following review petitions filed by teachers’ organisations, the Supreme Court, on May 29 this year, retained its decision but extended the deadline to August 2028.
According to Maharashtra government data, over 4.4 lakh of the state’s nearly 4.95 lakh serving teachers do not possess TET qualifications, making the examination critical for a large section of the teaching workforce.
What does the postponement mean for candidates?
Although the council has clarified that the examination will be rescheduled, candidates say the uncertainty has only increased.
Many had travelled to examination centres across districts and made work and travel arrangements for the weekend. For in-service teachers working against the Supreme Court’s deadline, the postponement also delays another opportunity to secure the mandatory qualification.
Teachers have also demanded that the rescheduled examination be conducted with stronger safeguards to restore confidence in the system.
Has Maha TET faced controversies before?
Yes. But until now, the controversies have largely centred on the manipulation of results rather than the question paper leaks.
The biggest scandal surfaced in 2021 when investigations into irregularities in other recruitment examinations uncovered widespread manipulation in Maha TET results.
The probe revealed that candidates had allegedly secured TET qualification by tampering with marks, obtaining forged certificates and exploiting irregularities in the evaluation process.
Police identified 7,880 suspicious candidates and handed the list to the Maharashtra State Examination Council for verification.
The council’s scrutiny found that nearly 7,500 candidates had fraudulently increased their marks to qualify, while 293 had obtained fake TET certificates without altering marks. Another 81 candidates were also found to have secured certificates through illegal means.
While the 2021 scandal exposed systemic manipulation after the examination process, the present controversy marks the first major instance in which Maha TET has been postponed over a suspected question paper leak.
The Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) scheduled for June 28, 2026, was postponed after police received information about a possible question paper leak. (Special Arrangement/Deepak Joshi) 
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