Gujarat passes Bill to check paper leak in recruitment exams

The Gujarat Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2023 was introduced in the House by Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi and was supported by all the members of the House, including from the opposition parties — Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Introducing the Bill, Sanghavi said that it was necessitated because of people who are “enemies of development” and who are indulging in “devilish” act of paper leak to make quick and big money.

Sanghavi said, “It is a need of the hour to bring a stringent law against paper leak… Due to the absence of a special law, accused in the paper leak cases were taking disadvantage of loopholes in the prevalent law.”

Adding that 11 papers were leaked in the state in the past 11 years, Sanghavi said, “In those instances, 11 offences were registered against 201 accused. In 10 cases, chargesheet was filed. In one case, chargesheet was not filed as it was reported recently and the work is on to file chargesheet in that as well by the ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad).”

The main Opposition party Congress supported the Bill, but its members suggested a number of changes to it. One of the major changes was suggested by Modhwadia who demanded that the students appearing in school or college examinations must be excluded from the purview of this Act, else, it will ruin their career forever.

“This (Bill) proposes to bring the entire education examination system under the police department (in cases of paper leaks). In examinations of students, there can never be involvement of police. I request to exclude students appearing in school and college examinations from the purview of this Act… Students of schools and colleges should be punished only by teachers and not police. If we pass the Bill (without the change), it will create havoc,” Modhwadia said.

Following Modhwadia’s suggestion, the state government introduced a modification to the Bill and it was passed.

As per the modification, the government added a sub-clause to the Act which states, “Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, in case an examinee appearing in the public examination other than the examination conducted for recruitment, by the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board or state funded universities, has committed any offence under this Act, he shall be referred to the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) or as the case may be, to the concerned university and the decision of the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board or concerned university, in this case shall be final.”

As per a Schedule in the Bill, its provisions were applicable to the examinations conducted by various authorities in the state, including state-funded universities and GSHSEB.

Congress Legislative Party leader Amit Chavda demanded that the Bill should be made applicable with retrospective effect from all the paper leak cases since 2014. However, Sanghavi said that it was legally not feasible.

Chavda and Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani had demanded a White Paper from the state government on the number of paper leaks in government recruitment examinations in the state since 2014 and the number of candidates affected by it.

A number of MLAs of the opposition demanded that the state government’s recruitment agencies should print the exam papers in government press instead of getting it done in other states.

BJP MLA from Dhoraji, Mahendra Padaliya, said that the Bill was required so that hard working candidates do not take extreme step of committing suicide after getting disappointed by the paper leaks.

AAP MLAs Chaitar Vasava and Umesh Makwana also supported the Bill while suggesting some changes to it.

Makwana and Mevani suggested that there should be a special fast track court for conducting criminal trial under this Act. As many as 19 MLAs spoke on the Bill. Many of them suggested changes, but all of them supported it.

The Gujarat government has brought the Bill after a spate of incidents of paper leaks in government recruitment examinations. The Gujarat State Law Commission, in July last year, had also recommended the state government to bring a special law to check the paper leak menace in government recruitment examinations.