The Centre has tabled the draft of the country's first Public Examinations (Prevention Of Unfair Means) Bill which has been presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday. It aims to have provisions to stop unfair practices in competitive examination which includes paper leaks and copying. Let us tell you what are the provisions for punishment in this bill.
If a person is found guilty of leaking or copying a paper, he will be sentenced to three to five years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.
If found guilty of taking the exam in place of someone else, the punishment will be three to five years in jail and a fine of Rs 10 lakh.
If any institute's collusion is proved, the entire examination cost will be recovered from it, apart from this, there will also be a fine of up to Rs 1 crore and the property of that institute can also be confiscated.
If the director, management or in-charge of the institute is found guilty of leaking or copying the paper, then a provision of three to ten years of imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1 crore has also been made in this bill.
This bill also says that people guilty of organized crime of paper leak and copying will be sentenced to five to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 crore.
The purpose of this bill introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday is to tighten the noose on copying and paper leak mafias who have made paper leak of competitive exams a business. When this bill becomes a law, which competitive examinations will come under the ambit of this law, this is also mentioned in this bill.
Union Public Service Commission i.e. UPSC
Staff Selection Commission i.e. SSC
Railway Recruitment Boards
Institute Of Banking Personnel Selection
Competitive examinations conducted by ministries and departments associated with the Central Government.
National Testing Agency
The provisions of this bill will be applicable on paper leak and copying of competitive examinations conducted by all these testing agencies. But right now this bill has just been introduced in the Lok Sabha. It will first be passed in the Lok Sabha. Then after passing in the Rajya Sabha, it will go for the President's approval. And only after that this bill will take the form of law.
The central government argues that crores of students have to suffer losses due to paper leak and subsequent cancellation of the examination. It affects their future. And there is a strong reason behind this argument of the government.
More than 70 cases of paper leak were reported in the seven years between 2017 and 2023. After the paper leak, the exams were canceled and 1 crore 50 lakh students were affected.
The Supreme Court has also expressed concern over the increasing cases of paper leaks in the country. The Supreme Court had made a strong comment saying that paper leaks are ruining the education system of the country. In such a situation, there is a need not only to make strict laws, but also to fill the holes created by the mafia in the system and fix the system. So that the future of crores of youth of the country is not played with.
