Why in News ?
The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 that has provision for up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹1 crore for malpractices and organised cheating in government recruitment exams was notified by the Union government to come into effect from June 21.
Today’s News :
In a decisive move to curb paper leaks and cheating in public examinations, the government on Friday introduced the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. This law comes into force amid a massive controversy surrounding the NEET and UGC-NET exams, which have been marred by allegations of paper leaks and irregularities.
The Act aims to prevent unfair means in public examinations conducted by major bodies such as the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), railways, banking recruitment examinations, and the National Testing Agency (NTA), among others.
List of offences
The Act mentions punishments for “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.
Besides these, “creation of fake website to cheat or for monetary gain”, “conduct of fake examination, issuance of fake admit cards or offer letters to cheat or for monetary gain” and “manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations” are also among the offences punishable under the law.
Service provider
A service provider, engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of examinations, shall also be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine up to ₹1 crore “and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered” from it, according to the Act.
Such service providers shall also be barred from being assigned with any responsibility for the conduct of any public examination for a period of four years.