Law to check paper leak in exams proposes Rs 1cr fine

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to check malpractices in government recruitment exams such as paper leaks and fake websites, with strict penalties, including a minimum jail term of three years and a fine up to Rs 1 crore.

At present, there is no specific substantive law to deal with unfair means adopted or offences committed by various entities involved in the conduct of public examinations by the central government and its agencies. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, introduced by Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, mentions "leakage of question paper or answer key", "directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination" and "tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system" as offences done by a person, group of persons or institutions.

The bill will cover entrance examinations held by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the railways, banking recruitment examinations and all computer-based examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), Singh said.