‘Serious MSBSHSE cheating cases will invite criminal charge’

Shahaji Dhekne,secretary,MSBSHSE,said,“We have worked on the new norms for a long time now and tried to eliminate the anomalies that were there in the system so far. The earlier rules were framed in 1994 and have a lot of ambiguity in various issues. The list of the proposed changes has been put up on the website for parents,teachers,school authorities and students,seeking suggestions and objections. Earlier,the deadline for this was January 20,but we have extended it to January 31 after several persons requested us to give them more time.”

Using a dummy to write an exam,being in possession of a question paper that has been leaked,interfering with the process of invigilation,taking the help of an outsider (who is not related to the education system) in any way to cheat are likely to meet criminal charges as per the new rules. So far,students were only debarred from taking the exam for one or more years,depending on the offence,but now stealing an answer booklet or threatening an invigilator can land a person behind bars.

The board has received several letters,emails and calls on the new norms. The officials will go through these after January 31 and a decision will be taken on the changes that may be needed. The list of the new punishment norms is available on MSBSHSE’s website,www.msbshse.ac.in/newsite/Shishasuchi.pdf. A final decision on the proposal will be taken by the executive committee of the board,which is an autonomous body,at a meeting soon.