Let me first and foremost begin with a disclaimer: I am not an aspirant of any competitive exam any more now as I have already crossed that stage some years back and am now in full time profession of lawyer. But I have definitely witnessed earlier a couple of years back when I was busy preparing for different exams as to how hard the aspirants have to study day in and day out for different competitive exams and how just a single mark plays a kingmakers role in ensuring the selection or rejection in any particular exam and how deeply frustrated and cheated the aspirants feel whenever any such news break in media of any particular paper being leaked of any exam and the exam finally getting cancelled leaving the genuine aspirants high and dry! My happiness knows no bounds to learn that finally Centre has decided to go whole hog in taking most decisive action against all those who indulge in unfair practices in exams and who are responsible for paper leaks.

It is certainly most refreshing, most rejuvenating and most reassuring that finally we see that the Central government has broken its prolonged silence on creating a strong legislation to tackle unfair practices in exams and has ultimately notified a law to tackle most firmly the various unfair practices and so also questions paper leaks that keep taking place in different public exams. It must be noted in this regard that the law titled the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 has come into effect from June 21 and it aims to prevent, prohibit and punish unfair means in public examinations. It must be also noted here that the Act covers several unfair activities in public exams such as leaking question papers, tampering with answer sheets, manipulating seating arrangements, creating fake websites to cheat for monetary gain and conducting fake exams.

To recapitulate, we witnessed how the Bill proposing this historic law was first introduced in the Lok Sabha on February 5 before being passed ultimately on the next day that is on February 6. It is worth noting that on February 9, we witnessed how even the Rajya Sabha passed this Bill as well. In addition, we then witnessed how it received the Presidential assent on February 12, 2024 and then was finally notified on June 21, 2024 by the Central Government in the Official Gazette.

It definitely cannot be just glossed over that the notification of this new law comes at a most opportune time amid nationwide huge controversy that has generated over serious malpractices that have been alleged in the conduct of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical college admissions. It would be also worthwhile to note that the newly notified Act under Section 9 of this new Act makes all the offences cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. It is certainly also worth noting as pointed out in Section 12 of this new Act that all these offences will be investigated by senior police officials. It is stated in Section 12 that:

1. An officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police or Assistant Commissioner of Police shall investigate any offence under this Act.
2. Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), the Central Government shall have the powers to refer the investigation to any Central Investigating Agency.

We need to definitely note here that the new law enjoins that those who use unfair means in public exams could be imprisoned for a minimum of 3 years to a maximum of 5 years to curb cheating and could also be subject to a fine of upto Rs 10 lakhs. It is also stipulated that those who indulge in organized crimes of cheating will face five to 10 years of imprisonment and so also a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore. The BJP-led NDA government while expressing its optimism about the utility of this new law said clearly that the Act will bring greater transparency, fairness and credibility as it is the first federal legislation to prevent malpractices in examinations.

It would be in the fitness of things to mention what all comes under unfair means as spelt out in Section 3 of this Act. Section 3 states that:
The unfair means relating to the conduct of a public examination shall include any act or omission done or caused to be done by any person or group of persons or institutions, and include but not be restricted to, any of the following acts for monetary or wrongful gain –

1. leakage of question paper or answer key or part thereof;
2. participating in collusion with others to effect leakage of question paper or answer key;
3. accessing or taking possession of question paper or an Optical Mark Recognition response sheet without authority;
4. providing solution to one or more questions by any unauthorized person during a public examination;
5. directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination;
6. tampering with answer sheets including Optical Mark Recognition response sheets;
7. altering the assessment except to correct a bona fide error without any authority;
8. willful violation of norms or standards set up by the Central Government for conduct of a public examination on its own or through its agency;
9. tampering with any document necessary for short-listing of candidates or finalizing the merit or rank of a candidate in a public examination;
10. deliberate violation of security measures to facilitate unfair means in conduct of a public examination;
11. tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system;
12. manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations;
13. threatening the life, liberty or wrongfully restraining persons associated with the public examination authority or the service provider or any authorized agency of the Government; or obstructing the conduct of a public examination;
14. creation of fake website to cheat or for monetary gain; and
15. conduct of fake examination, issuance of fake admit cards or offer letters to cheat or for monetary gain.

Most significantly, we must now dwell on the various punishments as encapsulated in Section 10 and Section 11 of this new Act which forms the cornerstone of this new Act. It is stipulated in Section 10 that:

1. Any person or persons resorting to unfair means and offences under this Act, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not less than three years but which may extend to five years and with fine up to ten lakh rupees. 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.
   
   Provided that until the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 is brought into force, the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, shall be applicable in place of the said Act.
2. The service provider shall also be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine up to one crore rupees and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered from such service provider and he shall also be barred from being assigned with any responsibility for the conduct of any public examination for a period of four years.
    
3. Where it is established during the investigation that offence under this Act has been committed with the consent or connivance of any Director, Senior Management or the persons in-charge of the service provider firm, he shall be liable for imprisonment for a term not less than three years but which may extend to ten years and with fine of one crore rupees. 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:
   
   Provided that until the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 is brought into force, the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, shall be applicable in place of the said Act.
    
4. Nothing contained in this section shall render any such person liable to any punishment under the Act, if he proves, that the offence was committed without his knowledge and that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence
    

What’s more, it is then laid bare in para 11 about organised crimes that:

1. If a person or group of persons including the examination authority or service provider or any other institution commits an organised crime, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not less than five years but which may extend to ten years and with fine which shall not be less than one crore rupees. 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:
   
   Provided that until the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 is brought into force, the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, shall be applicable in place of the said Act.
    
2. If an institution is involved in committing an organised crime, its property shall be subjected to attachment and forfeiture and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered from it.

In sum, it is definitely most heartening to note that Centre has not wasted any more time after the outburst over the NEET exams in most commendably notifying the law to tackle unfair practices as discussed hereinabove and also providing for strict punishment for paper leaks in public exams.

There has to be zero tolerance for such crimes and this is what the new law intends to do. A good beginning has definitely been made in this direction to check, curb, combat and crush such crimes completely or at least considerably to a large extent! It is definitely a right step in the right direction and at the right time! All that is needed now is that it is most strictly implemented whenever any case comes to light without sparing any guilty person!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col (Retd) BPS Sirohi, A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera, Meerut - 250001, Uttar Pradesh.