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Making cheating in exams a cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable offence, imprisonment of up to five years and fine up to Rs 10 lakh – these are among the stringent new provisions in the Odisha government’s new anti-cheating bill, which comes amid allegations of irregularities in various public examinations.
Called the Odisha Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, the draft law is expected to be passed during the forthcoming session of the state assembly scheduled to start from November 26. According to Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, the bill is aimed at “preventing various forms of unfair means such as impersonation, cheating, and disrupting the examination process, leakage of information related to an exam before the scheduled time, unauthorised entry into exam halls etc. and to maintain the integrity of public exams”.
“Any person or persons resorting to unfair means and offences, shall be punished with imprisonment ranging three to five years and with fine up to ten lakh rupees,” Ahuja said after the cabinet meeting.
Currently, there’s no specific penal provision to cover unfair practices during examinations, with police previously booking offenders under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, and, since July, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The punishment for cheating under IPC is up to seven years while that under the BNS is three years.
Once passed, all examinations conducted by the Odisha Public Service Commission, Odisha Staff Selection Commission, Odisha Subordinate Staff Selection Commission and Service Selection Board will be regulated by the law. It will also be applicable for recruitments conducted by Odisha Police Selection Board, State Selection Board constituted under the Odisha Education (Selection Board for the State) Rules, 1992, as well as recruitment exams for the state government and their subordinate offices. The Odisha Joint Entrance Examination, regulated by the Odisha Professional Educational Institution (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2007, will also come under this.
Significantly, third party service providers engaged for conducting various examinations will also be liable to a fine that could extend to a staggering Rs 1 crore, and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered from such service providers.
“In case of default of payment of fine, an additional punishment of imprisonment shall be imposed, as per the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023,” one officer told The Indian Express.
Last month, job aspirants in Odisha staged protests demanding cancellation of online examinations conducted by various state government agencies for posts such as revenue inspectors, ICDS supervisors and statistical officers citing massive discrepancies in the way the exams were conducted. Irregularities in the Odisha Public Service Commission were also reported last year.
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