RS passes Bill to curb exam malpractices, paper leaks

Singh also said that the “first-of-its-kind in history” law will not penalise bonafide students.

The Bill penalises any person or persons resorting to unfair means with a minimum imprisonment of three years which may extend to five years and with fine up to Rs 10 lakh. The law also prescribes a higher sentence ranging from three to ten years if a company providing services for the exam is involved. For organised rackets involved in unfair means, the Bill prescribes a minimum sentence of five years which can extend up to ten years with a fine of up to Rs 1 crore. Unfair means under the proposed law is defined to include leakage of question paper or answer key, tampering with answer sheets including Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) response sheets, manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates among others.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh who supported the Bill called for a review of online examinations. “Online examinations have become a platform for corruption. Companies that have been blacklisted in one place conduct their business elsewhere. I would request the minister to stop conducting online examinations and instead have offline exams,” he said.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill states that malpractices in public examinations lead to delays and cancellation of examinations adversely impact the prospects of millions of youth. Since technical education is in the concurrent list, a central legislation on the subject would mean that states have to adopt the legislation.