The government is likely to introduce — the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 — a new bill in Parliament today to deal sternly with malpractices and irregularities in competitive examinations.
Paper Leak: The government is likely to introduce — the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 — a new bill in Parliament today to deal sternly with malpractices and irregularities in competitive examinations, with provisions for a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine up to Rs 1 crore. As per the news agency PTI report, sources said the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 may be introduced on Monday but a final call is yet to be taken. The Union Cabinet recently cleared the bill.
Students in several states have suffered in the past due to examinations getting cancelled for malpractices including paper leaks; recent examples of paper leaks include the Jharkhand General Graduate Qualified Combined Competition (JSSC CGL). The sources said students will not be a target of the proposed law. It will act against organised gangs, mafia elements, and those indulging in malpractices and will not even spare government officials found in collusion with them, PTI reported.
With a string of incidents concerning question paper leaks, several competitive exams have had to face cancellation. This unfortunate situation has affected multiple exams including the teacher recruitment exam in Rajasthan, Haryana’s Common Eligibility Test (CET) for Group-D posts, Gujarat’s junior clerks recruitment exam, and the constable recruitment exam in Bihar. Also, the bill proposes a high-level national technical committee on public examinations that will make recommendations to make the computerised examination process more safe and secure.
The committee will look into developing protocols for insulating digital platforms, devising ways and means for developing foolproof IT security systems, ensuring electronic surveillance of examination centres, and formulating national standards and services for both IT and physical infrastructure to be deployed for the conduct of such examinations. The sources said that in many instances, it has been observed that organised groups and mafia elements involved in malpractices deploy solver gangs, use impersonation methods and indulge in paper leaks.
Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024: Aim And Objective
The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 aims to deter such nefarious elements; meanwhile, the sole objective of the bill is to bring in greater transparency, fairness, and credibility to the public examination systems and to reassure the youth that their sincere and genuine efforts will be fairly rewarded and their future is safe. The bill is expected to cover examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission(UPSC), Staff Selection Commission, and entrance tests such as NEET and Joint Entrance Examination(JEE).