10 yrs In Jail, Rs 1 Crore Fine For Cheating: New Public Examinations Bill Explained

Examination Has Been Postponed! Protests After Question Paper Leaked! Tempered OMR Sheets Found!

These are some of the headlines that have become a nightmare to millions of aspirants who work and study hard day and night, but all their hard work goes in vain as question papers of many top public examinations in this country get leaked. Aspirants do their best to prepare for competitive exams to get good jobs or secure a seat in top courses, but due to the postponement of exams, they lose the chance. Although life gives several chances to everyone, but examinations do not. Many competitive exams have an age limit that does not allow or disqualify thousands of candidates every year, which means, that if the exam gets canceled because of authorities' misconduct, candidates have to pay for their mistakes.

Sadly, students in India always take competitive exams with a fear of exam cancelation back of their minds.

To curb paper leaks and cheating in major examinations, the Narendra Modi government presented a new bill in Loksabha called 'the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill'.

About Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill:

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on February 5 tabled the final draft of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill in the Lower house that underlines the issues of cheating in public exams including UPSC, SSC, Railways, NEET, JEE, and CUET. The bill aims to prevent unfair means and rebuild the trust and credibility of authorities in the eyes of aspirants that public examinations will be conducted transparently and fairly.

The bill also talks about the constitution of high-level committees for public examinations that will make sure that the computerized examination process are secure and no unfair means being used.

Which Exams Are Termed As Public Exams?

Under section 2 (K), a Public examination is defined as any examination conducted by a public examination authority listed in the schedule of the bill, or any such other entity that comes under the Central or State Government for hiring of contractual or permanent staff or to secure a position in top colleges, institutes of the country.

Punishments According To Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill:

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) aims to uphold the integrity of crucial examinations and according to it, if somebody gets caught using unfair means, the offenders may get imprisoned for up to 10 years and pay heavy penalties up to Rs 1 crore. The service provider firms engaged in malpractices will also have to pay the cost of conducting examinations and will be prohibited from conducting public exams for four years.