Paper Leak: Law to Combat the Issue

4th November, 2024 - 9:51 am Categories: News & Updates 0 Comments

Introduction

Competitive exams in India are not just a means to get a job, rather they signify a much deeper meaning. They are a means through which people improve their social status, and standard of living. A large section of our country is poor and the only way they think they can improve their status is through education and paper leaks serve as a major drawback for the educational and social system. To combat this issue the government has introduced a law public examinations (prevention of unfair means) act, 2024. The main objective of this act is to prevent ‘unfair means’ and to improve the status of the public examinations, which is muddled during the recent times owing to the leaks and other malpractices. There are many states that are not very developed and largely they suffer from the issue of paper leaks more, because of which there happens a grave injustice with the people who can stand on merit and qualify these examinations. One such state is Bihar, for this The Bihar public examination (prevention of unfair means), bill 2024 has been introduced and Uttarakhand also came up with a similar law. These are not the first states to bring up such law, in Uttar Pradesh in 1992, an ordinance was brought up by Kalyan Singh on the same issue. There are many states who have these anti-cheating laws some of these are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, etc. many states had to cancel their examinations owing to paper leak which not only resulted in loss to the organisations of the exams in the conduction of these exams but also costed the aspirants year back and financial loss.

Introduction of the bill and its scope

Jitendra Singh presented the bill before the Lok Sabha. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 was passed in the month of February, but its implementation started only on 21^st of June 2024. The bill was passed during the budget session. This a prospective act, which means it does not apply to the acts done before the implementation of this act, and only to those incidents which happened after the implementation of the law. This act was made in accordance with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 and not according to the old Indian Penal Code (IPC). This act targets unfair means and aims to bring transparency, authenticity and fairness to public examination. This is related to main five authorities that conduct public examination which are Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), the National Testing Agency (NTA). The NTA conducts some of the major exams for which a large section of our youth appears, these are the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), NEET-UG, JEE (Main), UGC-NET.

The main provision of this act to not to punish the candidates who resolve to cheating but rather to go deep to the roots of the issue and punish the organisations and groups responsible for such acts. It clearly defines and probits the use of unfair means under section 3 of the act. The offence under this act is cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. The police can arrest the suspect with any warrant. The punishment defined in the act is up to 10 years of imprisonment and up to 1 crore fine. The offenders of acts will be banned from appearing in any exam for six-months up to lifetime. In case of a school or college’s involvement in a paper leak or any such unfair means the act provides that the property of the institution will be seized by the government and a proportionate amount of the exam can be recovered from that property. In the last 5 years in almost 15 states 40+ paper leak incidents have been recorded, because of which 1.5 crores of aspirants suffer. Such incidents affect the aspirants deeply and impacts on their mental state and well as their career, causing many to back out from the competition and in severe cases aspirants also commit suicide. Almost four crore applicants apply for approx. one lakh posts, which shows a huge gap in the opportunities available and the demand for such opportunities, this gap becomes a reason for the stress on the aspirant and their family as well.

Under section 3 of the act, unfair practices have been described and fifteen acts are listed that will come under unfair means. The leak of question paper or answer key, or any unauthorised access to them. If someone is able access the omr or the answer booklet unauthorised then it also amounts to unfair means.  Any tampering with the computer network and resource document. Distribution of fake admit cards and conducting fake examinations are also included in unfair means. Dr. Jitendra Singh has also suggested the formation of High Level National Technical Committee on public examination, to conduct examinations on online platforms.

Opinion

There are many loopholes and ambiguity in the implementation of the act. For example, there is no defined provision for the punishment for minor offenders. How this act will be applicable on teachers, or will it be applicable or not. How will they ensure that cheating has taken place because to know that, certain infrastructure is required such as biometrics, surveillance and data mining etc. and all the examination centres and institutions are not equipped with these. Also, one of the major issues faced is that when an examination is cancelled because of unfair practices there is no time limit given in the act as to when the examination will be reconducted. It is very common to note that these examinations are delayed up to two- three years and still there is no solution. The people who are appointed in the conduction of this exam should have some qualifying

Conclusion

In this era of competition, cheating and paper leaks pose a huge issue for the development of India and its educational system. The majority of India’s population is youth and therefore they are involved in such examinations and depend on these exams for their future. Such incidents and problems directly affect the career of the youth of our nation and hinders the development of our nation. Such issues are rarely heard and seen in developed nations but developing nations such as India suffer from this issue and this issue is deeply rooted in our educational system. There was no substantive law at the national level before this law, it is a fairly new law and its proper implementation is yet to be seen. This law will directly or indirectly provide assistance to the students if it is properly implemented and effectively executed. A student who manages to even pass the exam through unfair means such as paper leak has no authenticity and this kind of education not only restricts his personal growth but also affects the nation’s growth.

Author: Vradhi Tiwari, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to chhavi@khuranaandkhurana.com or at  Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.

References

1. Nikhila Henry, ‘Why India law against exam cheating may not work’ BBC News (Delhi, 8 February 2024)
2. Debby Jain, ‘Parliament Clears Public Examinations (Prevention Of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024’ Live Law (9 February 2024)
3. Livelaw News Network, ‘Law Punishing Paper Leak & Unfair Means In Public Exams Takes Effect From June 21’ Live Law (22 june 2024)
4. Priyanshi Bharadwaj, ‘An In-Depth Analysis Of Public Examinations (Prevention Of Unfair Means) Act, 2024’ Live Law (15 July 2024)
5. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Government of India (https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2002592 ) accessed on 22 October 2024
6. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024