Reserved categories competing in open categories: Bombay HC stays MPSC recruitment procedure
The petition states that the MPSC had issued the advertisement for conducting preliminary and main examinations to fill up the post of Police Sub-Inspector-2016, having 750 vacancies in total.
In a letter to the CJI, senior advocates Janak Dwarkadas, Rajani Iyer, Anil Anturkar, Mihir Desai, and Gayatri Singh requested him to take necessary steps to avoid personal presence of petitioners to sign and affirm the PILs. 
Bombay HC on Wednesday stayed the recruitment procedure of the MPSC for two weeks while hearing a petition regarding candidates belonging to reserved categories competing in open categories on merit.
THE BOMBAY High Court on Wednesday stayed the recruitment procedure of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) for two weeks while hearing a petition regarding candidates belonging to reserved categories competing in open categories on merit. The court will hear the matter on February 1. The High Court was hearing a petition filed by Ajay Munde, a social activist and a resident of Pune, seeking directions against the MPSC to implement the government circular dated August 13, 2014, that says candidates from the reserved category cannot apply and compete in open female category and other categories on merit.
The petition states that the MPSC had issued the advertisement for conducting preliminary and main examinations to fill up the post of Police Sub-Inspector-2016, having 750 vacancies in total. Various candidates in the reserved category had filled online application forms for the post from open female category/open sports category. Some of them candidates qualified for the preliminary examination and filled up form for the main exams.
Munde’s lawyer, Chetan Nagre, said that after candidates qualified in the preliminary exams and the main exams, they received a call for physical fitness test and personal interview.
After they cleared the physical test, during the verification of documents, those who belong to the reserved category and had applied in open female/open sports categories were informed by the authorities of the MPSC through a letter that they could not appear for interview as they belonged to the reserved category and could not compete in the open category, irrespective of merit.
The petitioner says that the MPSC has acted in a similar manner for the post of Sales Tax Inspector-2016. The petitioner has also informed the court about 12 interim orders from the High Court’s Aurangabad bench and Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) at Mumbai and Aurangabad that have directed the MPSC to conduct interviews of successful candidates.
It says the government circular, dated August 13, 2014, “has been wrongly and arbitrarily interpreted by the MPSC”.
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