The Union Cabinet on Friday approved amendments to the Prevention of Paper Leak law, which proposes stricter punishment, increased jail time and fines
on the accused. The proposed bill is set to be introduced on Monday (July 27) in the ongoing Monsoon Session in Parliament. As the country awaits more updates around this, let's understand what is Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. What is the Anti-Paper Leak Law? The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 is a central law that was introduced to prevent paper leaks, organised cheating, impersonation, and other unfair practices in public examinations. The law aims to protect the integrity and credibility of competitive examinations conducted across India. Why was this law introduced? The law was introduced after a series of controversies such as alleged irregularities and paper leaks in competitive exams such as NEET UG, UGC NET and recruitment exams. The objective of this law is to introduce fair examinations, merit-based selection and remove organised exam fraud. Which examinations are covered under the Act? The Act applies to public examinations conducted by the Central Government and its agencies, including:
- National Testing Agency (NTA) exams such as NEET, JEE Main, CUET, UGC NET
- UPSC examinations
- Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exams
- Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) exams
- Banking recruitment examinations
- Any other examination notified by the Central Government
What is considered an offence under the law?
This Act criminalises actions such as (attempt to) leaking questions papers, selling or purchasing leaked papers, having unauthorised access to question papers or answer keys.
Even hacking examination systems, tampering with computer networks, manipulating examination results, conducting fake examinations and impersonation (or solving papers for someone else) are also punishable under this law.
What are the fines under this law?
Under the existing law, individual cheating is punishable with three to five years' imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh, while organised paper leak rackets face five to 10 years in jail and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore. Service providers found complicit can be fined up to Rs 1 crore and made to bear the cost of conducting the examination. The government is expected to significantly increase punishments, such as increase these jail terms and financial penalties.
It should also be noted that offences under the Act are non-bailable, non-compoundable, and cognisable.
